# Carlo Di Palma

Carlo Di Palma (17 April 1925 – 9 July 2004) was an Italian cinematographer, renowned for his work on both color and black-and-white films, whose most famous collaborations were with Michelangelo Antonioni and Woody Allen.

## Early life

Carlo Di Palma was born into a poor Roman family; his mother was a flower seller on the Spanish Steps, while his father was a camera operator for a number of Italian film studios. In an interview shortly before his death, Di Palma recounted his childhood memories of observing his father in action: "I'd run to the studio or the location, and watch my father work. I was fascinated by the whole experience. I would stand on a crate sometimes and watch. All of the people that were on the location were pleasant to me. I was very quiet and observant, so with that they let me stay on set. I would watch many different directors over and over."

## Career

Di Palma's collaborations with Antonioni included Il deserto rosso (1964); the "Il provino" segment in I tre volti (1965); Blowup (1966); Identification of a Woman (Identificazione di una donna) (1982). With Woody Allen, he worked on Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Radio Days (1987), September (1987), Alice (1990), Shadows and Fog (1991), Husbands and Wives (1992), Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Don't Drink the Water (1994), Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Everyone Says I Love You (1996), and Deconstructing Harry (1997). He also worked with many other noted film directors during his long and productive career.
He is also a little-known film director.
Carlo Di Palma moved from Italy to the United States in 1983.
He won a Silver Ribbon for best cinematography four times: in 1965 for Il deserto rosso, in 1967 for L'armata Brancaleone, in 1993 for Shadows and Fog, and in 1997 for Mighty Aphrodite, as well as the Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema award in 2003.

## Later years

Di Palma was hired to shoot Allen's film Anything Else (2003), and actually started location scouting before failing an insurance physical, which was required for all key personnel on the crew, resulting in his replacement by Darius Khondji, to Di Palma's great disappointment, as he had been eager to work again after having been on the sidelines for the past six years.

## Personal life

In the 1980s, Di Palma married Adriana Chiesa, an exporter of Italian films. She nursed him through his final illness.

## Filmography
### Cinematographer
#### Film

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 1957 | Lauta mancia | Fabio De Agostini | |
| 1960 | The Employee | Gianni Puccini | |
| 1960 | Long Night in 1943 | Florestano Vancini | |
| 1960 | Le svedesi | Gian Luigi Polidoro | |
| 1961 | The Assassin | Elio Petri | |
| 1961 | Tiro al piccione | Giuliano Montaldo | |
| 1961 | Divorce Italian Style | Pietro Germi | With Leonida Barboni |
| 1961 | Leoni al sole | Vittorio Caprioli | |
| 1962 | Parigi o cara | Vittorio Caprioli | |
| 1962 | Terrible Sheriff | Alberto De Martino Antonio Momplet | With Dario Di Palma and Ricardo Torres |
| 1963 | Omicron | Ugo Gregoretti | |
| 1964 | Liolà | Alessandro Blasetti | With Leonida Barboni and Tonino Delli Colli |
| 1964 | Red Desert | Michelangelo Antonioni | |
| 1964 | The Naked Hours | Marco Vicario | |
| 1965 | Terror-Creatures from the Grave | Massimo Pupillo | |
| 1966 | L'armata Brancaleone | Mario Monicelli | |
| 1966 | A Question of Honour | Luigi Zampa | With Luciano Trasatti |
| 1966 | Blowup | Michelangelo Antonioni | |
| 1967 | I Married You for Fun | Luciano Salce | |
| 1967 | On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who... | Pasquale Festa Campanile | |
| 1968 | The Girl with the Pistol | Mario Monicelli | |
| 1969 | The Scarlet Lady | Jean Valère | |
| 1969 | The Appointment | Sidney Lumet | |
| 1969 | Help Me, My Love | Alberto Sordi | |
| 1970 | The Pizza Triangle | Ettore Scola | |
| 1970 | Ninì Tirabusciò, la donna che inventò la mossa | Marcello Fondato | |
| 1970 | La pacifista - Smetti di piovere | Miklós Jancsó | |
| 1971 | La supertestimone | Franco Giraldi | |
| 1971 | That's How We Women Are | Dino Risi | |
| 1972 | Gli ordini sono ordini | Franco Giraldi | |
| 1979 | Together? | Armenia Balducci | |
| 1981 | Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man | Bernardo Bertolucci | |
| 1982 | Identification of a Woman | Michelangelo Antonioni | |
| 1983 | The Black Stallion Returns | Robert Dalva | |
| 1983 | Gabriela | Bruno Barreto | |
| 1986 | Hannah and Her Sisters | Woody Allen | |
| 1986 | Off Beat | Michael Dinner | |
| 1987 | Radio Days | Woody Allen | |
| 1987 | The Secret of My Success | Herbert Ross | |
| 1987 | September | Woody Allen | |
| 1990 | Alice | Woody Allen | |
| 1991 | Shadows and Fog | Woody Allen | |
| 1992 | Husbands and Wives | Woody Allen | |
| 1993 | Manhattan Murder Mystery | Woody Allen | |
| 1994 | Bullets Over Broadway | Woody Allen | |
| 1994 | The Monster | Roberto Benigni | |
| 1995 | Mighty Aphrodite | Woody Allen | |
| 1996 | Everyone Says I Love You | Woody Allen | |
| 1997 | Deconstructing Harry | Woody Allen | |

#### Short film

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 1963 | Le lièvre et la tortue | Alessandro Blasetti | Segment of Three Fables of Love |
| 1965 | Il provino | Michelangelo Antonioni | Segment of The Three Faces |
| 1966 | Fata Sabina | Luciano Salce | Segment of Sex Quartet |
| 1970 | Il frigorifero | Mario Monicelli | Segment of Le coppie |
| 1989 | Roma | Michelangelo Antonioni | Segment of 12 registi per 12 città |

#### Television

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 1981 | Great Performances | Jean-Pierre Ponnelle | Episode "La clemenza di Tito" |
| 1983 | Ritorno a Lisca Bianca | Michelangelo Antonioni | TV documentary short |
| 1994 | Don't Drink the Water | Woody Allen | TV movie |

### Director

* Teresa the Thief (1973)
* Blonde in Black Leather (1975) (Also writer)
* Mimì Bluette... fiore del mio giardino (1976)
* L'addio a Enrico Berlinguer (1984) (Documentary film)