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Varo Venturi
Born (1956-08-09) 9 August 1956 (age 67)
Rome, Italy
Nationality Italian
Occupation(s)Film director, writer, actor, musician, author, composer and researcher
Years active1978–present
Website [1]

Varo Venturi-Clementini (born in Rome, 9 august 1956) is an Italian film director, writer, actor, musician, author, composer and researcher.

Son of Vasco Venturi and Maria Rosa Clementini (painter / sculptor and classical pianist), in his youth he was attracted by painting, music, philosophy and communication, revealing an ante-litteram multidisciplinary attitude. While studying Anthropology, History of Religions and History of Cinema at the University, he works as a photographer for various weekly and plays as a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, forming several bands between experimental rock and sound research. Also interested in theater and contemporary poetry, in 1978 he begins an intense collaboration with the Julian Beck's Living Theatre, as a musician and actor, which culminates in the staging of the play "Prometheus", which debuted at the ArgentinaTheatre in Rome. At the same time with some of the members of the New York theater group he develops an experimental super-8 film and attends the protagonists of the beat generation, including Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, creating a photographic diary of the new American poetry. At the turn of the '80s and '90s, after scoring music for works of contemporary theatre, such as "Medea" by Enrico Job, and painting performances, he begins a prolific activity as a musician, artist and composer, producing and writing for various artists.

In 1983 he meets the singer Nada, for which he writes and composes most of the songs of the album "Smalto" and especially "Amore disperato" (Desperate love), which immediately becomes one of the biggest hits of that year, and then an "evergreen" of the Italian pop music, with a lot of covers in Italy and Europe, as well as becoming, for the repeated use in the recent Italian cinema, one of the songs most exploited as film title track of all times, including the blockbuster "Mio fratello è figlio unico" (My brother is an only child).

As an artist, he creates groups as: N.A.T.O. (along with the singer Gianluigi Di Franco); Richter, Venturi and Murru, with whom he participates in the Sanremo Music Festival (1984 competition) with the song "Mondorama", getting a great critical success; the Mondorhama, with which he makes an album, both in Italian and in English, produced and distributed throughout Europe by RCA and Polydor Germany (a synergy between two majors never happened before).

The single "Stories", extracted from the same album, becomes in Italy one of the hits of summer 1985. In 1987, with the singer Liliana Richter, he forms the band "Guernica", with whom he makes two albums (the second one produced by Vasco Rossi for EMI). In the same year, he forms the band "Blossom Child" for which he writes, together with Paolo Fabiani, and produces the song "I Pray", an European success and a Gold record in France, where it is still a cult in every 80s revival.

Since '93, while achieving some international "dance hits ", in synergy with the Expanded Music, proposing a new vision of the so called "Italian-disco", he produces the album "Orchestra Spettacolo Mariani" for the singer and rapper Roberto Mariani - that includes "Ex", a rap built on an article written by the journalist Giuliano Zincone (participating together with Giuliano Ferrara and Rome's mayor Giusi Nicolini in the video clip of the song) - and three albums for the singer Francesca Schiavo, for which he also writes the song "Il mondo è qui" (The world is here), which participates in the 44th Sanremo Music Festival.

After he engages in the "filmmaker" career, realizing many pop music videos for various artists, and creates a new musical project that produces an album (today still unpublished), in 1997 he officially begins his work as an author and a filmmaker, under construction since ever. He directs and produces the short film "Cosmos Hotel" - made in the newborn support dvcam - awarded in the "Sacher Film Festival" and hosted at the 1997 Locarno Film Festival and Turin Film Festival. The work, hailed as one of the best short films of the year, brings out, through a personal style, the new "digital cinema" of which Varo Venturi can be considered one of the pioneers.

Later, after scoring his second short film, the controversial "Don Giovanni" (in competition at the 1998 "Sacher Film Festival" ), he participates as actor and composer in Franco Bernini's film, Sotto la luna (Under the Moon), and as actor in Peter del Monte's film Controvento ( Against the Wind) performing along with Valeria Golino. At the same time, he co-writes with his collaborator Maria Luisa Fusconi (former student of Alessandro Baricco's Holden school), as well as various projects, the screenplay for the film "L'italiano" (The Italian, directed by E. De Dominicis), in which he is also one of the main actors.

2000/2013

In 2003 he undertakes the adventure of "Nazareno" - his first feature film, independently produced with Maria Luisa Fusconi, and distributed by his newborn Deusfilm - where he directs a multicolored cast of actors, mostly non-professionals, taken from the streets and from life. Released in 2007, the movie gets interesting results in theaters as well as excellent critical feedbacks and various awards, winning in Paris, the Special Jury Award at the European Festival of Independent Cinema (ÉCU 2008), and a nomination for Best Debut Film at the 2008 Golden Ciak.

Between 2009 and 2011, he begins the adventure of "6 giorni sulla terra" (aka "6 Days on Earth") in which, with the scientific support of Corrado Malanga, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pisa, he faces the controversial subject of alien abductions, his passionate object of study and analysis since ever, linking it to the many mysteries threatening humanity, from mythology to today's "hidden government".

The film participates successfully in the 33rd Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF 2011), becoming immediately a "cult", but it suffers a mysterious, heavy "sabotage" as any movie ever in the history of cinema, confirming the uncomfortable, burning contents.

Currently, in addition to the imminent international launch of the English-spoken version of the film, titled "Day 6," Varo Venturi is developing several new projects including a co-production for a film set in the fifteenth century - where among the various characters the figure of Pope Pius II will be treated, original name Enea Silvio Piccolomini (an illustrious ancestor of his family) - and a sci-fi feature set in the present days in which he will treat the most advanced theses about human cloning and intra-terrestrial alien powers. In addition, the making of "Realscienza" (Sci-real), a series of documentaries in which, along with Italian and foreign researchers, he digs into the secrets of knowledge, in the name of an amplification of the perception of reality, a commitment that he promulgates also writing articles and giving lectures throughout Italy.

Filmography

  • 2013 - Realscienza (Documentary) in post-production.
  • 2012 - Day 6 (director, screenwriter, actor, editing, etc.) – feature film soon to be internationally released.

Selected at the 33° ‪Moscow International Film Festival‬ 2011 - Awarded for Best Director at the 2012 CinemAvola Film Festival.

  • 2007 - Nazareno – feature film (director, screenwriter, actor, cinematographer, editing)

Special Jury Award at ÉCU 2008, European Independent Film Festival in Paris. Special Jury Award at Messina Film Festival 2008. Best First Feature Nomination at the 2008 Ciak D'oro for Italian Cinema.

  • 2002 - L'italiano – feature by E. De Dominicis (screenwriter, actor)
  • 1998 - Don Giovanni – short film (director, screenwriter, actor, cinematographer, editing, etc.)
  • 1997 - Cosmos Hotel – short film (director, screenwriter, actor, cinematographer, composer)

Gold Sacher at the 1997 Sacher Film Festival - Torino Film Festival - Locarno International Film Festival.

Discography

Year Title Record Label Artist Singer Composer Author Arranger Producer Notes
1982 N.A.T.O. Qdisc - IT dischi N.A.T.O Component of the duo with the singer Gianluigi Di Franco
1983 Smalto LP - EMI Nada 5 songs including the hit Amore Disperato
1983 Amore Disperato 45 rpm - EMI Nada
           Top Hit of the year
           Evergreen of the Italian Pop Music
           Cover: 
B-SIde, 
Caparezza, 
Mondo Marcio
           International version - 
Katzenaugen in 
Germany
           Theme song of "
Mio fratello è figlio unico", 
Vacanze di Natale, ecc.
1984 Mondorama Single - RCA Richter, Venturi e Murru
         Component of the group with 
Liliana Richter and 
Marcello Murru
         
Sanremo Music Festival 1984 - 
Giovani Category
1984 Balliamo ancora un po' 45 rpm - EMI Nada
1985 Mondorhama LP - RCA e Polydor Germania Richter, Venturi e Murru Component of the group with Liliana Richter and Marcello Murru
1985 Stories 45 rpm - RCA and Polydor Germany Mondorhama Component of the group with Liliana Richter and Marcello Murru
1985 I pray 45 rpm - Carrere/RCA/ITdischi Blossom Child
          
Gold disc in 
France
          Top 50 Songs of 1985 in 
Europe
1985 Il tuo diario 45 rpm - EMI Nada
1986 Lost in Panama 45 rpm - RCA Mondorhama Component of the group with Liliana Richter and Marcello Murru
1988 Guernica LP/CD - RCA Guernica Component of the duo with the singer Liliana Richter
1988 Grassa Città 45 rpm - RCA Guernica Component of the duo with the singer Liliana Richter
1990 Remember Mix - DFC/Expanded Music Hipsters
1990 Star Mix - Expanded Music Varied Lily With pseudonym HIPNOS
1991 Chakra Mix - DFC Chakra With pseudonym HIPNOS
1992 Orchestra Spettacolo Mariani CD - ITdischi Roberto Mariani
1992 Ex single - ITdischi Roberto Mariani
1992 Giulia single - ITdischi Roberto Mariani
1992 Guernica CD - Vasco Rossi/EMI Guernica Component of the duo with the singer Liliana Richter
1992 Guarda il tuo cuore Single - Vasco Rossi/EMI Guernica Component of the duo with the singer Liliana Richter
1992 Le Anime Nere CD - BMG Ariola Nada With pseudonym HIPNOS
1992 Guarda Quante Stelle Single - BMG Ariola Nada With pseudonym HIPNOS
1992 Let Your Body Talk Mix - D&W Chakra
1992 A Cannibal in Manhattan Mix - Expanded Music Varied Lily
1993 Schiavo CD - ITdischi Francesca Schiavo
1993 Come Inside Me Mix - DFC/Expanded music Chakra
1994 Losaicivuoleamore CD - ITdischi Francesca Schiavo
1994 Il mondo è qui single - ITdischi Francesca Schiavo Sanremo Music Festival 1994
1996 Babies are crazy Alabianca Netherlands Chakra
1996 FRANCESCA! CD - ITdischi Francesca Schiavo
1996 Amore e guerra single - ITdischi Francesca Schiavo Sanremo Music Festival 1996
1997 Credimi single - ITdischi Francesca Schiavo Theme song of the movie Cresceranno i carciofi a Mimongo by Fulvio Ottaviano.