RIP Erico Menczer

Italian Cinematographer Erico Menczer has died at 86. One of the great directors of photography of Italian cinema died at his home in Rome on March 10th, but the news was just released today by his family. In his long and distinguished career Menczer worked with directors like Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Mario Monicelli, Luciano Salce, Marco Risi, Dario Argento, and with great actors such as Toto, Anna Magnani, Vittorio Gassman, Nino Manfredi, Vittorio De Sica. One of his most famous films in which he worked was ''I soliti ignoti'' directed by Monicelli. His signature also appears in the first two episodes of  the Fantozzi saga, starring Paolo Villaggio. Menczer was born in Fiume, in Dalmatia, in 1926. His real name was Eric, but was forced to Italianize it under the fascist government. At the end of the Second World War he first moved to Padua, then to Genoa, and finally to Rome, where he began his film career with the documentary “Piccolo cabotaggio pittorico” (1952), directed by Aglauco Casadio which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Menczer photographed one Euro-western 1973’s “White Fang” directed by Lucio Fulci starring Franco Nero.