Costume Designers and Production Designers

The collection was donated by Andrea Crisanti for the students of the Scenic Design course and other users as well and consists of valuable iconographical documents mostly concerning furnishings, architectural styles and film locations. Some of the material is digital, although there are many volumes of location photographs used for the documentation process. Another part of the collection consists of original scripts, some of which were created for films Crisanti has worked on as set designer).

Andrea Crisanti (1936-2012) – Over the course of his long career, set designer Crisanti worked with top film directors from Italy and overseas including, among others, Rosi, Leone, Antonioni, Bellocchio, Tornatore, the Taviani brothers, Tarkovskij and Ozpetek. He was Scenic Design professor at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Film Centre)  and the head of the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema (National Film School).

This collection consists of 28 screenplays and theatrical scripts belonging to Marisa D’Andrea, costume and set-designer. Some of the most interesting titles are: “L’amore in città”, “Le amiche”, “Carosello napoletano” and “I fratelli Karamazoff”.In 2012 D’Andrea also donated the digital copy of her own edit of 104 of her sketches for theatre shows, films, tv dramas and series.

Marisa D’Andrea (1923-2015) – Italian costume and set designer, she worked in the cinema, theatre and television industry. She attended the Set Design Course at the Art Academy of Rome, and the Costume Design Course at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, she graduated in 1949 and started working in the theatre industry for Luigi Squarzina, creating a partnership with her husband, the set designer Gianni Polidori. She then pursued a career in the film industry, at first as and assistant to Maria De Matteis and then as costume designer for many movies. She was professor of Costume Design at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia for over 20 years.

Donated in 2011, the collection consists of 1,139 documents including 786 modern and antique books, art, furniture, architecture, set and costume design magazines, 94 screenplays, synopses and treatments, 117 scores, 124 executive projects, 23 files and 24 album of iconographic documentation, 4 files containing study materials, letters and reports on his work.

Mario Garbuglia (1927-2010) – Set designer and set manager for film, theatre and television, Garbuglia showed great versatility in the creation of both historical reconstructions and imaginary spaces. After graduating from the Art Institute of Florence, he studied at Rome’s Art High School and Art Academy, majoring in set design, a subject which he then studied in greater depth at the School of Architecture. From 1947 to 1949 he studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. In 1952 he created his first set for L. Emmer’s film “Le Ragazze di Piazza di Spagna”. From then on Garbuglia’s time was increasingly taken up by his work of many years as Mario Chiari’s assistant in films such as “Le Notti bianche”, which marked the beginning in 1957 of a long partnership with director L. Visconti, with whom he later worked at “Rocco e i suoi fratelli” (1960), “Il Gattopardo” (1963), “Vaghe stelle dell’Orsa” (1965), “Lo straniero” (1967), “Gruppo di famiglia in un interno” (1974) e “L’innocente” (1976). “La Grande Guerra” (1959) marked the beginning of a long-standing partnership with M. Monicelli, with whom he also worked at I compagni” (1963), “Casanova ’70” (1965), Brancaleone alle crociate” (1970). In the 1960s he was already considered one of Italy’s greatest set designer. Among his most notable contributions, both in Italy and abroad, worthy of mention are “La donna scimmia” (1964) by Marco Ferreri, “Caccia alla volpe” (1966) by Vittorio De Sica, “Barbarella” (1968) by Roger Vadim, “Waterloo” (1970) by Sergej F. Bondarčuk, “La cage aux folles” (“Il vizietto”, 1978) by Édouard Molinaro, “The lion of the desert” (1980) by Moustapha Akkad, “La storia vera della Signora dalle Camelie” (1981) by Mauro Bolognini, “Oci ciornie” (1987) by Nikita S. Michalkov and “Giulia e Giulia” (1987) by Peter Del Monte. Garbuglia also did a great deal of theatre and television work. He also designed set-ups for nightclubs, for the Frankfurt Book Fair and renovated apartments and villas. From 1976 to 1978 Garbuglia taught Scenic Design at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.

The collection – donated in 2005 – consists of six albums of press reviews of the following films: “Teorema” (1968), “Medea” (1969), “Decameron” (1971) by Pier Paolo Pasolini and “The Driver’s Seat” (1974), by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, better known as “Identikit”. The press reviews, originally collected by his cousin Franco Rossellini’s San Marco studios, were intended to monitor press interest and public appreciation of the films.

Gioia Fiorella Mariani (b 1934) – Roberto Rossellini’s niece, scriptwriter, costume designer and director. After studying at the Accademia di Belle Arti, she started her career as assistant to painter and scriptwriter Lila De Nobili. Most of her activity was focused of theatre prose and opera, but she also worked in various films and directed a few documentaries.

Donated by her brother, the collection consists of 324 rare art, photography and costume books and magazines that were part of the costume designer’s personal library.

Vera Marzot (1931- 2012) – Film, television and theatre costume designer. Marzot worked on many films with directors such as Luchino Visconti, Mario Monicelli and Vittorio De Sica, often in collaboration with Piero Tosi. After attending the Costume Design Course at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Film Centre), she debuted in the industry as an assistant to Beni Montresor in “Pia de’ Tolomei” (1958) by Sergio Grieco and then started working as a costume designer in “Urlatori alla sbarra” (1960) by Lucio Fulci. Her work can also be seen in “Un giorno da leoni” (1961) by Nanni Loy, “L’isola di Arturo” (1962) by Damiano Damiani and “Eva” (1962) by Joseph Losey. In 1963 she began collaborating with Tosi – as assistant in “Il Gattopardo” by Luchino Visconti and “The Organizer” by Mario Monicelli and as costume designer in films such as“La donna scimmia” (1964) by Marco Ferreri,  “Matrimonio all’italiana” (1964) by Vittorio De Sica and “La caduta degli dei” (1969) and “Gruppo di famiglia in un interno”  (1974) both by Visconti. She later turned her attention primarily to theatre, working again with Visconti and Luca Ronconi among others.

The collection was donated by Gino Carlo Sensani and consists of many volumes of iconographical documents (some of which are rare and valuable) about theatre costumes, fashion over the centuries, art history, interior design and decorative arts.

Gino Carlo Sensani (1888-1947) – One of the most successful costume designer in the world of theatre and opera: he collaborated with Camerini, Blasetti, Alessandrini and Poggioli, but also with French directors such as Pierre Chenal and Christian Jacque. He was a lecturer at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia 

Il fondo, donato da Piero Tosi, è costituito in prevalenza di preziosi volumi di documentazione iconografica, relativi al costume teatrale e cinematografico, alla moda attraverso i secoli, alla storia dell’arte, all’arredamento e all’arte grafica e fotografica. Un altro fondo di fotografie relative ai film a cui Tosi ha collaborato è depositato presso la Fototeca della Cineteca Nazionale.

Piero Tosi (1927-2019) – Costumista e scenografo. Nel corso della sua lunga carriera Tosi ha lavorato con numerosi registi italiani e stranieri: ricordiamo in particolare Visconti, Bolognini, Pasolini, Zeffirelli, Fellini, Cavani. E’ stato docente di Costume al Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.

The collection was donated in 2013 and consists of 1,819 costume and set sketches collected into 82 files, sorted into theatre, film and advertising categories, according to the order given by the costume designer himself, and 31 albums with photographic documentation divided by year. Each sketch is paired with the indication of the film or theatre show it was created for.

Alberto Verso (1941-2007) – Costume and set designer who worked in theatre, film and television both in Italy and abroad. He studied at the Reggio Calabria High School of Arts and then moved to Rome in 1959-60 where he studied at the faculty of Architecture. He made his debut in 1965 in the productions of the Compagnia del teatro italiano Peppino De Filippo, initially as assistant costume designer to Franco Laurenti in Le metamorfosi di un suonatore ambulante. Later he was assigned the sets and costumes for the opera La Mandragola. He then worked with Maurizio Monteverde on many prose, opera and television productions and, in the meantime, with other great costume designers such as Maria De Matteis in “Waterloo” (1970), Eugenio Guglielminetti in “Orfeo in Paradiso” (1971) and Ezio Frigerio in the opera “Wozzeck” (1979), directed by di L. Cavani for the 42^nd Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. His partnership with costume designer Piero Tosi gave him the chance to take part in important work such as “Il portiere di notte” (1974), “Al di là del bene e del male” (1977), “La pelle” (1981) and “Oltre la porta” (1982) by L. Cavani, “L’innocente” (1976) by L. Visconti, “Per le antiche scale” (1975) and “La storia vera della signora delle camelie” (1981) by M. Bolognini and “Il malato immaginario” (1979) by T. Cervi. He established a prolific partnership for theatre productions with director W. Pagliaro while his television work included “La pietra di luna” (1972) and “I due prigionieri” (1985) by A.G. Majano, “Il segreto del Sahara” (1988) and “I guardiani del cielo” (1999) by A. Negrin, “La romana” (1988) by G. Patroni Griffi”, “Il grande Fausto” (1995) and “Il furto del tesoro” (2000) by A. Sironi. Other film work which should be mentioned is ” Interno berlinese” (1985) and  “Il gioco di Ripley” (2003) by L. Cavani, (for which he designed Chiara Caselli’s costumes), “Rebus” (2003) by M. Guglielmi, “Mio caro dottor Gräsler” (1990) by R. Faenza (with costume designer Milena Canonero), “L’avaro” (1990) by T. Cervi and “La tregua” (1997) by F. Rosi, “Vipera” (2001) by S. Citti.