Storaro, Vittorio

(1940-)

   Cinematographer. Son of a projectionist for the Lux Film studios in Rome, Storaro developed an early passionate interest in photography, which he pursued privately at the Italian Cinemagraphic Training Center, and then professionally at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. After an apprenticeship as assistant cameraman on Bernardo Bertolucci's Prima della rivoluzione (Before the Revolution, 1966), Storaro graduated to director of photography on Franco Rossi's Giovinezza, Giovinezza (Youth, Oh Youth, 1969). A year later with La strategia del ragno (The Spider's Stratagem) and Il conformista (The Conformist) there began a long partnership with Bernardo Bertolucci that would see Storaro as regular cinematographer on all of Bertolucci's major films, from Ultimo Tango a Parigi (Last Tango in Paris, 1972) and Novecento (1900, 1976) to The Sheltering Sky (1990) and The Little Buddha (1993). In between, Francis Ford Coppola would lure Storaro to the Philippines to photograph Apocalypse Now (1979), for which Storaro would receive his first Academy Award, an achievement repeated two years later with his work on Warren Beatty's Reds. He would receive a third Oscar for his work on Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (1987). Considered by many to be the leading cinematographer of his generation—Moviemaker once called him "the high priest of light"— Storaro has been honored with numerous awards and prizes including the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Society of Cinematographers (2001) and the Coolidge Award for Cinematography in 2005. Currently, Storaro teaches cinematography at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.