- Born
- Height5′ 10¾″ (1.80 m)
- Director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino was born in Naples in 1970, and became an orphan when he lost both of his parents at the age of 16. At the age of 25, after studying for a few years at the Faculty of Economics and Business in University of Naples Federico II, he decided to work in the film industry. His first full-length feature L'uomo in più, starring Toni Servillo and Andrea Renzi, was selected at the 2001 Venice Film Festival, achieved three nominations for the David di Donatello (the Italian Academy Awards) and won the Nastro d'Argento (the Italian cinema journalists Academy Award) for Best First Time Director. In 2004 he directed Le conseguenze dell'amore, selected in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival and acclaimed by both Italian and International critics. The film won many important Italian awards, including five David di Donatello awards: for Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Actor and Cinematography. Three years later his third film L'amico di famiglia was also selected in Competition at Cannes. In 2008 another collaboration with Toni Servillo, Il Divo, became his third film to be selected in Competition at Cannes. The film was nominated for Best Make-Up at the Academy Awards® and won seven David di Donatello, five Ciak d'Oro and five Nastri d'Argento awards. He has also published a novel Hanno tutti ragione (Everybody's Right) in 2010, and two collections of short stories: Tony Pagoda e i suoi amici (2012), and Gli aspetti irrilevanti (2016). Hanno tutti region was warmly received by both critics and public and was short-listed for the Premio Strega, the most prestigious Italian literature award. As of 2021, seven of his 9 films have been presented in Competition at the Festival de Cannes, where Il Divo won the Prix du Jury in 2008. In 2014, his film La Grande Bellezza won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as a BAFTA and five EFA Awards. In 2016, La Giovinezza gained an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song and two Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Song. The film won three European Film Awards. In 2016, he made his first TV Series: The Young Pope. In 2021, È stata la mano di Dio won the Grand Jury Prize at the 78th Venice International Film Festival.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous
- SpouseDaniela D'Antonio(? - present) (2 children)
- ChildrenAnna SorrentinoCarlo Sorrentino
- ParentsSalvatore SorrentinoConcetta Romano
- RelativesMarco Sorrentino(Sibling)Daniela Sorrentino(Sibling)
- Frequently casts Toni Servillo
- Frequently works with cinematographer Luca Bigazzi
- Oblique storytelling with partially obscure plots
- Often casts veteran actors in supporting roles: Angela Goodwin and Raffaele Pisu in The Consequences of Love (2004), Fabrizio Bentivoglio in The Family Friend (2006), Fabio Bucci, Giorgio Colangeli and Paolo Graziosi in Il Divo (2008), Carlo Verdone and Carlo Buccirosso in The Great Beauty (2013).
- Often tends to have a large 10+ minutes prologue before the main title appears.
- Lost both his parents in a domestic accident at the age of 16.
- Music is written into his scripts.
- Never studied at a film school.
- During production of his films, he never goes back and sees what he filmed at the end of the day, so when he goes to the cutting room, he really sees for the first time what his DP and him captured.
- Cannot write his scripts without listening to music.
- I don't use Twitter. I'm a serious person.
- [on the journeys in The Great Beauty (2013)] In the film apparently there is no destination. People are floating over life. Apparently, they are always still in the same place. They're destined to go nowhere. However, the protagonist, without even realizing it, is moving toward a very precise destination. It is an appointment with the highest moment of his youth, his adolescence and of his purity. So the destination is specifically indeed those cliffs where he ends up meeting the young girl. The love of his life when he was a young man.
- [on the constant motion in daily life] It's the fragmentary nature of the movement in today's life that makes it difficult to move in tune with the past. It's the neurotic component of the fragmentary nature of today's movement that makes it difficult to get in touch with the feelings that characterized the past, or other experiences.
- [on The Great Beauty (2013)] It's very much a film about the time flowing and with the flowing of time, the time that we end up wasting in our lives. That's why it becomes burdensome and we are all dealing with the aspect of death. But through this fatigue, this weight of our life on all of us, we somehow give dignity to the life that we are living.
- [on Rome] There's one thing that I like about Rome that was stated by Napoleon: that from sublime to pathetic is only one step away. And in Rome there's a constant shifting between sublime and pathetic.
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