Torn Masterpieces

Welcome! It’s a new Thursday edition of the Animation Obsessive newsletter — and this one’s about two icons from Italy.

Once, they were royalty. Their films got two Oscar nominations, plus a mountain of prizes across the globe. They counted some of the great animators among their fans — Yuri Norstein, Bill Littlejohn, Garri Bardin and beyond.1

The admiration wasn’t limited to the animation world, either. Encountering the “force, imagination and rhythm” of one of their early films, Federico Fellini was amazed. “[I]t makes me furious that I don’t know how to draw so I could resolve my films in the same way,” he reportedly wrote.2

Giulio Gianini and Emanuele Luzzati were their names. Many knew them simply as Giugi and Lele, though, even outside their circle. They were unassuming, despite the fame. In the ‘70s, when Luzzati got turned away from an award ceremony because he had no tie, he quietly made one from a ripped poster and walked in.3

Their era is over today. By the 2000s, when Gianini and Luzzati passed away, their films had already gotten trickier to find. Now, they’re rarely discussed outside Italy.4

So, in this issue, we’re taking a fresh look at the charm of their work, beginning with a new English translation of their wonderful Ali Baba (1970). It’s one of Norstein’s favorite films — for its stylistic perfection, and its “unbelievable sense of harmony between movement and music.”5

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