by Conan Simmons – January 25, 2021 – 7:46 am
Born in Naples on March 28, 1925 the lawyer turned film producer who made several classic films has passed away in Rome on January 21 age 95.
At the beginning of the 1960’s as the Italian film industry was gaining steam, Alberto Grimaldi launched the film production company Produzioni Europee Associatee. Frequently entering into co-production deals with Spain and West Germany, Grimaldi’s first film production was an early spaghetti western, 1962’s ‘Shades of Zorro’ starring Frank Latimore.
Grimaldi would go on to produce both ‘For a Few Dollars More’ and ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ for director Sergio Leone.
In 1968 Grimaldi produced the Federico Fellini segment “Toby Dammit” starring Terence Stamp for the feature anthology ‘Spirits of the Dead’.
1969 brought a variety of notable films produced by Grimaldi. ‘Fellini Satyricon’ reteamed him with the famed Italian director. The adventure film, ‘Burn!’ directed by Gillo Pontecorvo and starring Marlon Brando. And the Lee Van Cleef spaghetti western ‘Sabata’ along with its two sequels, ‘Adios, Sabata’ and ‘Return of Sabata’ in 1970 and 1971.
Alberto Grimaldi took on more challenging productions in the 1970’s such as Bernardo Bertoluci’s ‘Last Tango in Paris’ also starring Marlon Brando.
The controversial 1975 adaptation of Marquis de Sade’s ‘Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom’, released three weeks after its director Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered, is probably the most notorious film Grimaldi ever produced.
The 1976 political drama directed by Bernardo Bertoluci ‘1900’, starring Robert DeNiro and Gerard Depardieu was followed in the same year as ‘Fellini’s Casanova’, a historical romp starring Donald Sutherland as the legendary lover.
As the Italian film industry began slowing down by the 1980’s, in part due to declining distribution in the United States, Alberto Grimaldi produced fewer films. One of his best in that decade was the 1986 comedy ‘Ginger and Fred’, directed by Federico Fellini and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Giulietta Masina.
Grimaldi would make one big comeback and earn an Oscar nomination for Best Picture for the 2002 historical drama, ‘Gangs of New York’ directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio with Daniel Day-Lewis.