Mario Chiari

Birth : 1909-07-14, Firenze, Toscana, Italia

Death : 1989-04-08

History

Mario Chiari (14 July 1909 – 8 April 1989) was an Italian production designer and art director. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film Doctor Dolittle. Source: Article "Mario Chiari" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Movies

Yuppies
Production Design
Willy, Giacomo, Lorenzo e Sandro sono 4 giovani yuppies rampanti nella "Milano da bere" degli anni '80, che vivono nel mito dell'Avvocato Gianni Agnelli e di Silvio Berlusconi; il loro unico scopo nella vita è apparire anziché essere. Giacomo è un pubblicitario, Lorenzo è un notaio, Sandro è un dentista, e Willy è un venditore di automobili.
Womanlight
Production Design
Having both suffered extreme losses, a man and a woman try to form a relationship.
Ashanti
Production Design
Dr. Anansa Linderby is kidnapped in a medical mission in Africa by a slave trader. From this moment, her husband will do anything to recover her and to punish the bad guys, but that will be not an easy task.
Traffic Jam
Production Design
A large international cast takes part in this comedy in which the stories of numerous individuals whose cars are stalled in a massive Roman traffic jam are told.
King Kong
Production Design
In this remake of the 1933 classic, an oil company expedition disturbs the peace of a giant ape and brings him back to New York to exploit him.
Prete, fai un miracolo
Story
"Priest - a miracle please" - The young Italian priest Don Alberto is sent to New York where he is alone and suffers the typical indifference of the metropolis. He is involved with a group of young hippies, the "angels of death" who announced their collective suicide to protest against the society that is deprived of love and victim of the system that kills everything.
Prete, fai un miracolo
Director
"Priest - a miracle please" - The young Italian priest Don Alberto is sent to New York where he is alone and suffers the typical indifference of the metropolis. He is involved with a group of young hippies, the "angels of death" who announced their collective suicide to protest against the society that is deprived of love and victim of the system that kills everything.
Morel's Invention
Editor
A castaway arrives on an island. He thinks it's uninhabited, but he sees a palace with also a hidden room. Soon he sees some people walking, dressed with old-fashioned clothes. He is afraid because people don't see him, like a ghost.
Ludwig
Production Design
Historical evocation of Ludwig, king of Bavaria, from his crowning in 1864 until his death in 1886, as a romantic hero. Fan of Richard Wagner, betrayed by him, in love with his cousin Elisabeth of Austria, abandoned by her, tormented by his homosexuality, he will little by little slip towards madness.
The Deserter
Production Design
A young cavalry officer finds his woman tortured by the Apaches and blames the Army for not properly protecting the outpost, so becomes a deserter and an avenger, stalking and killing Indians without warning.
A Man Called Sledge
Production Design
James Garner is Luther Sledge, the leader of a pack of rebels who are planning to steal a stash of gold. But after the thieves actually manage to get away with the bounty, they soon discover that the enemy lies within their midst. As they begin to bicker over who should get the biggest cut, the stage is set for a deadly showdown. Claude Akins and John Marley co-star in this Italian Western directed by Vic Morrow.
Fraulein Doktor
Production Design
A seductive and ruthless spy in the service of Germany steals state secrets- including the formula for poison gas-from England and France during World War I. British intelligence, in turn, tries to hunt her down.
A Quiet Place in the Country
First Assistant Director
A painter facing a creative block arranges to spend the weekend in the country at his mistress's villa. While staying there, his sanity begins to disintegrate.
Doctor Dolittle
Production Design
A veterinarian who can communicate with animals travels abroad to search for a giant sea snail.
The Bible: In the Beginning...
Art Direction
Extravagant production of the first part of the book of Genesis. Covers Adam and Eve, Noah and the Flood and Abraham and Isaac.
The Third Eye
Production Designer
Young nobleman Mino lives with his mother and Marta, the housekeeper, in an old, decaying castle. He is infantile and morbidly attached to the weird duo; his only hobby is taxidermy. Laura, Mino's fiancee, is met with jealousy and hatred by the two women, and decides to leave the castle; but Marta sabotages her car brakes and she is killed. Mino takes her body back to the castle. Meanwhile, his mother is violently arguing with Marta, who throws her down the stairs and repeatedly bashes her head on the floor. The distraught Mino descends into madness: he picks up a stripper at a nightclub and brings her home, then strangles her while having sex next to Laura's dead body. He does the same with a prostitute. Marta discovers these murders and offers to help dispose of bodies. A year later, Daniela (Laura's twin sister) arrives at the castle...
The Queens
Costume Design
Four unrelated short comedies by four different directors. "Queen Sabina"chronicles the sexual misadventures of a teenage girl on the road home. "Queen Armenia" centers on a self-serving opportunistic gypsy babysitter who uses her employer's kids for her own gain. The third episode, "Queen Elena" centers on a husband who learns a lesson about the perils of infidelity after he succumbs to the wiles of the seductive wife next door. The last vignette, "Queen Marta" centers on a wealthy woman who, when drunk, uses her butler as an outlet for her lust.
Lo spettro
Art Direction
A woman and her lover murder her husband, a doctor. Soon, however, strange things start happening, and they wonder if they really killed him, or if he is coming back from the dead to haunt them.
The Reluctant Saint
Art Direction
The Reluctant Saint is based on the life of Saint Joseph of Cupertino who was sent to work at a monastery circa 17th century Italy because his mother believed him too simple for anything else.
The Police Commissioner
Production Design
Popular Italian comic Alberto Sordi does an excellent job of creating a bumbling yet effective police inspector by the unlikely name of Dante Lombardozzi, in this entertaining comedy-murder mystery by director Luigi Comencini.
Barabbas
Art Direction
Epic account of the thief Barabbas, who was pardoned for his crimes and spared crucifixion when Pilate offered the Israelites a choice to pardon Barabbas or Jesus. Struggling with his spirituality, Barabbas goes through many ordeals leading him to the gladiatorial arena, where he tries to win his freedom and confront his inner demons, ultimately becoming a follower of the man who was crucified in his place.
Barabbas
Production Designer
Epic account of the thief Barabbas, who was pardoned for his crimes and spared crucifixion when Pilate offered the Israelites a choice to pardon Barabbas or Jesus. Struggling with his spirituality, Barabbas goes through many ordeals leading him to the gladiatorial arena, where he tries to win his freedom and confront his inner demons, ultimately becoming a follower of the man who was crucified in his place.
A Difficult Life
Production Design
Silvio refuses to fight for the fascists and joins the resistance with Elena. After the war, his vitriolic newspaper articles cause him to be sentenced to imprisonment.
Ghosts of Rome
Production Design
An old prince lives in his ancient palace in Rome together with the ghosts of his ancestors. For years he has proudly rejected huge offers by a real estate group seeking to buy the palace and build a department store in its place, but when he suddenly dies his nephew signs the deal. The palace seems lost, but the ghosts forge a plan to save it from destruction.
The Hunchback
Production Design
Alvaro Cosenza, also known as the Hunchback from Quarticciolo, during Rome's occupation by Nazis in 1943, decides to revolt.
Gastone
Production Design
During the period between world wars, vaudeville sketches were popular before film showings.Gastone is one of the characters played by the famous Ettore Petrolini who figures in these sketches.
The Giant of Marathon
Production Design
A Greek soldier leads the fight against an invading Persian army.
Son of the Red Corsair
Production Design
Enrico di Ventimiglia, the Son of the Red Corsair, travels through the Spanish conquests of Central America in search of the stepsister he has never met.
Winter Holidays
Production Design
Alberto Moretti arrives in Cortina D'Ampezzo, with daughter Marcella,who has just won a TV contest, the prize of which is a free stay in a luxury hotel.
The Law
Production Design
A gorgeous housekeeper turns the tables on the men in a small Mediterranean coastal town by using their own vicious drinking game.
Tempest
Production Design
A young officer in the army of Empress Catherine of Russia is on his way to his new duty station at a remote outpost. During a blinding snowstorm he comes upon a stranger who was caught in the storm and is near death from freezing. He rescues the man and eventually brings him back to health. When the man is well enough to travel, the two part company and the man vows to repay the officer for saving his life. Soon after he arrives at his new post, a revolt by the local Cossacks breaks out and the fort is besieged by the rebels. The young officer is astonished to find out that the leader of the rebellious Cossacks is none other than the stranger whose life he had saved during the storm.
Fortunella
Production Design
A poor girl is convinced she is the daughter of a prince.
Le Notti Bianche
Production Design
A lonely city transplant and a sheltered girl, haunted by a lover’s promise, meet by chance on a canal bridge and begin a tentative romance that quickly entangles them in a web of longing and self-delusion.
This Angry Age
Art Direction
Twenty-year-old Joseph and his sixteen-year-old sister Suzanne live in the merciless conditions of an intemperate foreign land with their widowed mother. Their mother attempts to exert a hold on her children by involving them in the family's run-down rice plantation. However the siblings seek liberation, and look for this in their romantic lives. Suzanne becomes involved with Michael and Joseph finds a love interest in Claude.
War and Peace
Art Direction
Napoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia including his disastrous 1812 invasion serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of two aristocratic families.
The Art of Getting Along
Production Design
In this comedy Alberto Sordi plays Rosario Scimoni, known as Sasà, an opportunistic and unscrupulous guy, nephew of the mayor of Catania, and he's always ready to take sides with anyone who can help him. He switches from socialism to fascism; he changes his political faith the same way he changes women. He even tries to found his own party.
Too Bad She's Bad
Production Design
When young and attractive Lina Stroppiani, a thief like the rest of her family, tries to steal the taxi of Paolo, together with two accomplices, she can't possibly know that this will have far reaching consequences.
Casta diva
Production Design
As soon as he graduated from the Naples Conservatory, Vincenzo Bellini meets Maddalena Fumaroli and immediately falls in love with her.
Sins of Casanova
Production Design
1760 Spain provides the setting for Giacomo Casanova's romantic escapades, every woman he encounters unable to resist his disarming charm, be they single, engaged, or even married.
House of Ricordi
Production Design
The film covers a hundred years in the lives of the Ricordi family, the Milan publishing house of the title, and the various composers and other historic personalities, whose careers intersected with the growth of the Ricordi house. It beautifully draws the parallel between the great music of the composers, the historic and social upheavals of their times, as well as the "smaller stories" of the successive generations of Ricordi.
Neapolitan Carousel
Production Design
Music, ballet, folk dances and mime eliciting the spirit of Naples across the ages are loosely tied together by the comedic wanderings and exploits of the Esposito family.
Storm
Production Design
High School
Production Design
It's the last year of highschool of a group of teenagers, and now they have to face their final exam, and the loves, happy or not, that sprung during those years of school.
Mid-Century Loves
Production Design
Anthology of tragic love. A noblewoman falls for a commoner. A doctor keeps quiet about his patients' infidelities. Expectant father is sent to fight in WWI. A 1920s fascist enjoys Rome's nightlife. WWII airman falls for a girl in Naples.
Mid-Century Loves
Director
Anthology of tragic love. A noblewoman falls for a commoner. A doctor keeps quiet about his patients' infidelities. Expectant father is sent to fight in WWI. A 1920s fascist enjoys Rome's nightlife. WWII airman falls for a girl in Naples.
Loves of Three Queens
Art Direction
At a wedding party involving three beautiful women, a young man should choose the most charming. But a professor intervenes to prevent the verdict, remembering the troubles caused by Paris in a similar situation.
Cavalcade of Song
Art Direction
I Vitelloni
Production Design
Five young men dream of success as they drift lazily through life in a small Italian village. Fausto, the group's leader, is a womanizer; Riccardo craves fame; Alberto is a hopeless dreamer; Moraldo fantasizes about life in the city; and Leopoldo is an aspiring playwright. As Fausto chases a string of women, to the horror of his pregnant wife, the other four blunder their way from one uneventful experience to the next.
Man, Beast and Virtue
Production Design
Paolino, a teacher at an elementary school near Naples, appears nervous for a few days and his friends do not know why. The man is the lover of Assunta, the mother of one of his pupils, and he discovers that she has become pregnant.
The World Condemns Them
Production Design
Forced by her lover to sell her body, Renata is saved from a suicide attempt by Paolo Martelli, an engineer. She asks him to help her find a job. When Paolo's wife humiliates her, Renata gains revenge by seducing the woman's husband.
Ho scelto l'amore
Costume Design
A satire of the Cold War, Italian style. Soviet flunkey Boris Popovitc is sent on a goodwill mission to Rome, where he is to deliver a symbolic dove of peace to a group of WW II freedom fighters. Somehow, Boris winds up in Venice minus the dove. As he searches up street and down canal for the missing bird, he meets and falls in love with luscious flower-girl Maria.
Ho scelto l'amore
Production Design
A satire of the Cold War, Italian style. Soviet flunkey Boris Popovitc is sent on a goodwill mission to Rome, where he is to deliver a symbolic dove of peace to a group of WW II freedom fighters. Somehow, Boris winds up in Venice minus the dove. As he searches up street and down canal for the missing bird, he meets and falls in love with luscious flower-girl Maria.
Bellissima
Self
Bellissima is a satire of the film industry, and centers on a mother and daughter after the latter attends an audition.
Love I Haven't... But... But
Costume Design
Gina tries to commit suicide by jumping into the river but is saved by Teodoro, an innocent young man. Antonio, Teodoro's brother, tries in every way to seduce her.
Love I Haven't... But... But
Production Design
Gina tries to commit suicide by jumping into the river but is saved by Teodoro, an innocent young man. Antonio, Teodoro's brother, tries in every way to seduce her.
Miracle in Milan
Co-Writer
Once upon a time an old woman discovers a baby in her cabbage patch. She brings up the child and, when she dies, the boy, Toto, enters an orphanage. Toto leaves the orphanage a happy young man, and looks for work in post-war Milan. He ends up with the homeless and organizes them to build a shanty town in a vacant lot. The squatters discover oil in the land and Toto sees a vision of the old woman who gives him a magic dove that will grant him anything he wishes.
Miracle in Milan
Costume Design
Once upon a time an old woman discovers a baby in her cabbage patch. She brings up the child and, when she dies, the boy, Toto, enters an orphanage. Toto leaves the orphanage a happy young man, and looks for work in post-war Milan. He ends up with the homeless and organizes them to build a shanty town in a vacant lot. The squatters discover oil in the land and Toto sees a vision of the old woman who gives him a magic dove that will grant him anything he wishes.
Fabiola
Story
In ancient Rome a love story blossoms between Fabiola, daughter of a senator, and Rhual, a Gallic gladiator. After Fabiola's father is killed, the Romans blame the Christians and the persecution begins. Rhual confesses to being a Christian, is accused of the murder and sentenced to fight to the death in the arena.
A Day in the Life
Story
Some Italian partisans want to take refuge in a convent to escape German raids. The nuns are a little perplexed at first but then agree since one of the men is seriously wounded. When the partisans eventually leave, the Germans take a terrible revenge.
A Day in the Life
Screenplay
Some Italian partisans want to take refuge in a convent to escape German raids. The nuns are a little perplexed at first but then agree since one of the men is seriously wounded. When the partisans eventually leave, the Germans take a terrible revenge.
The Sinner
Assistant Director
Seduced and abandonned by her fiance, Maria Ferrante leaves home to avoid any scandal. She is trying to find work and place to stay but one misfortune after another comes into her life Venice Film Festival 1940