Warner Bross.
4000 Warner Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91522-1602
Dear Mr. Cookson,
I write at the suggestion of our mutual friend, Mr. Ed Johansen, to ask an important favor.
As professors of Classics, we have frequently used films as educational material in our classes. In recent years, we have taught courses at our universities on Cinema and the Ancient World. Trough our experience teaching and researching films set in the Classical world, we came to know the work of set and costume designers John Moore and Veniero Colasanti. Their work on such classic epics as "55 Days at Peking", "El Cid", "The Fall of the Roman Empire", and "Fabiola" is truly excellent and deserving of special recognition because of the deep learning and respect for historical accuracy that their work reflect. We are very much hoping that you will be willing to nominate them for a special lifetime achievement award from the Motion Picture Academy or ffrom some othe pertinent professional organisation in Los Angeles.
As specialist in Roman studies, we would particularly single out for praise "The FAll of the Roman Empire". Colasanti and Moore's recostructions of the Roman Forum.
The temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline, and a Roman fort on the northern border of the empire are remarkable feats of historical research and imagination. We know that our opinion is shared by many colleagues in Italy and the United States who have used the film in their classrooms (despite some historical flaws in the story) precisely because of the brilliance of Colasanti's and Moore's sets and costumes. Here we might mention Frank Brown, the late distinguished Mellon Professor of Roman Archaeology at the American Academy in Rome, who always used to say that the set of the Roman Forum in "The Fall" was the best he had ever seen. Prof. William MacDonald, the emeritus professor of Classical Art at Smith College and author of two monumental works on Roman Architecture, is another important admirer of the sets of "the Fall", whose stills he had used in his classes and publications, In Italy il Prof. Giuseppe Pucci of the University of Siena, is currently writing a book on Roman epic films in wich he singles out of the sets of "The Fall" and "Fabiola" for special praise. We can only imagine those specialists in Spanish and Chinese studies would have equally laudatory things to say about Colasanti and Moore's creations for 255 Days at Peking" and "El Cid", for wich they were nominated for an Academy Award.
Colasanti and Moore not only recreated Romantic sets from the distant past, they also dressed some of the leading actresses of their day, including Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida. The exellence of their work is attested to by the honor roll of producers and directors from the USA, France and Italy who chose them as collaborators for their films, including Jean Renoir, Anthony Mann, David O. Selznik, Vittorio De Sica, and Sergio Leone. They were nominated for an Academy Award in 1961 and Colasanti received the award for costme design at the Venice Film Festival in 1942 for "Un Garibaldino al Convento". He also received the Marco Aurelio d'Oro as Best Costume Designer in 1965. Their work goes far beyond cinema they also designed costumes and sets for hundreds of operas, ballets, and plays stages all over Europe. We have attached a filmography we researched as well as a list of Colasanti and Moore's work in other media.
Because we admired their work so much, we looked up Veniero Colasanti and John Moore when teaching in Rome this past summer, and in the meantime we have gotten to know them quite well. Moore is an American, brought up in North Carolina and trained at Oxford. He has written two novels. Colasanti is from an old Roman family with deep roots in the arts. His father as Italian Minister of Culture after World War I. They are incredibly simpatici and fascinating characters, able to tell stories about the leading film personalities of their lifetime seemingly without stop and eager to communicate their values and lessons to a younger generation. Their beautiful home in Rome is filled with a working rarebook library with hundreds of books reflecting the history of costume and architecture. Their conversation and the corpus of their films show that they have steeped themselves in books and scholarship to a degree that is quite unique in the history of the epic film. I believethat you have a number of important allies woh would be willing to come forward to support any nomination you might feel appropriate.
The following names are just a start, but a good one, I think:
- Prof. Caroline Bruzelius, Director, American Academy in Rome
- Prof. John Pinto, Chairman, Dept. of the History of Art, Princeton University
- Prof. Fikret Yegul, Chairman, Dept. of the History of Art, University of California, Santa Barbara
- Sophia Loren and Charlton Heston
Let us take this opportunity to thank you for any help you can give up in this very worthy cause!
Sicerely yours,
Prof. Jane W. Crawford, Chair Departement of Classics, Loyola Marymount University 1996 Resident in Classics, American Academy in Rome
Prof. Bernard Frischer Departement of Classics, UCLA, Director, UC Education Abroad Program, 1996 Resident in Classics, American Academy in Rome 1997 Mellon Senior Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.c.
