Martelli, Otello

(1902-2000)

   Cinematographer. Martelli began working as a cameraman at Caesar Film in 1916 and graduated to director of photography on a number of films directed by Roberto Roberti before joining the Istituto LUCE in the mid-1920s. In 1928 he followed and recorded Umberto Nobile's hapless expedition to the North Pole in his feature-length documentary Le gesta dell'Artide (Exploits in the Arctic Region, 1928). On his return, he joined the newly revived Cines, where he worked as cinematographer on a host of films that included Alessandro Blasetti's Vecchia guardia (1933), Mario Camerini's Daw un milione (I'll Give a Million, 1935), and the first film to star comic actor Toto, Fermo con le mani (Hands Off Me! 1936), directed by Gero Zambuto.

   After the war he collaborated with Roberto Rossellini on Paisa (Paisan, 1946), Stromboli, terra di Dio (Stromboli, 1949), and Francesco, giullare di Dio (Francis, God's Jester, 1950), on many of Giuseppe De Santis's films, including the extremely successful Riso amaro (Bitter Rice, 1949), and with Federico Fellini on I vitelloni (Spivs, 1953), La strada (1954), Il bidone (The Swindlers, 1955), Le notti di Cabiria (The Nights of Cabiria, 1957), and La dolce vita (1960). Although not unduly enthusiastic about color, he photographed Vittorio De Sica's La riffa (The Raffle) and Fellini's Le tentazioni del dottor Antonio (The Temptations of Dottor Antonio), and two episodes of Boccaccio '70 (Boccaccio 70, 1962), as well as Abel Gance's final film, Cyrano et D'Artagnan (Cyrano and D'Artagnan, 1964), before retiring from the industry in 1966.