NAME: Franco Zeffirelli AGE: 81 NATIONALITY: Italian CLAIM TO FAME: The first Italian knight
ONE of Italy’s best known filmmakers, Franco Zeffirelli has also become the first Italian citizen to receive an honorary knighthood from the UK. The director, whose films include the Oscar-winning Romeo and Juliet, was honoured in Rome.
One of the world’s most respected directors of stage and screen, Zeffirelli rose to prominence in the 1960s with his feature film debut Taming of the Shrew, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor as the warring lovers. Thereafter came success and the pinnacle of his career when in 1968 his Romeo and Juliet received the Best Film and Best Director Oscar nominations. The film went on to win a further two Academy Awards for costume design and cinematography.
Zeffirelli’s other well know films include the 1979 tearjerker The Champ, starring Jon Voight and Faye Dunaway and Hamlet (1990) starring Mel Gibson, Alan Bates and Glenn Close. Last year, he directed Joan Plowright and Liza Tarbuck in the West End play Absolutely!. Other than movies, Zeffirelli has also had a close hand in stage and he directed the classic production of Tosca at London’s Royal Opera House, which ran for 40 years. His film productions of opera include an acclaimed version of La Traviata.
During the ceremony, while accepting the blue, gold and silver insignia, held at the British ambassador’s residence in the Italian capital, Zeffirelli said “I feel so English tonight.” He later added, “It’s the greatest conquest, recognition, I have received in my life, practically. I can’t believe it.” The 81-year-old received a KBE for his “valuable services to British performing arts”. Zeffirelli is an Anglophile and his 1999 film Tea With Mussolini was inspired by his childhood in Florence in the company of British expatriates. On his part, the British Ambassador, Sir Ivor Roberts praised the director’s devotion to the classics, particularly Shakespeare, which he often transformed into films and called him “one of the most celebrated living directors.” ‘The Maestro’, as Zeffirelli is also known as, is now the Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
Zeffirelli’s first contact with Britain came during World War II. While fighting as a partisan against the Fascists he was enlisted by the 1st Scots Guards as an interpreter. “Sometimes I don’t know if I’m English or Italian and in the end I say I’m from Florence,” he joked. He will not, however, be referred to as “sir” since he is not British. Nevertheless, the honorary knighthood sees Zeffirelli join a host of legendary names from the arts world, including Andre Previn, Yehudi Menuhin, Steven Spielberg and Bob Hope.
Other than his movie credentials, the director is also an ally of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and has represented Berlusconi’s party Forza Italia in the Italian senate since 1996. On his part, Berlusconi too attended the knighthood. — Dur-e-Najaf
ONE of Italy’s best known filmmakers, Franco Zeffirelli has also become the first Italian citizen to receive an honorary knighthood from the UK. The director, whose films include the Oscar-winning Romeo and Juliet, was honoured in Rome.
