Active from the 1950s to the early 2000s, Sergio Strizzi worked on more than 100 films, capturing iconic images that have entered the collective memory: from Totò in Miseria e Nobiltà to the masterpieces of De Sica, Monicelli, Antonioni, Petri, Tornatore and Benigni, as well as films by Huston, Gilliam, Coppola and Young. During preparations for the London exhibition Sergio Strizzi: The Perfect Moment, his daughters Vanessa and Melissa Strizzi retrace the career of their father – one of the most important stills photographers in Italian and international cinema – and their relationship with him.
In addition to exploring the relationship between the daughters and a father who was frequently away on film shoots, the documentary also examines the profession of the stills photographer and Strizzi’s unique ability to transform an image into memory by freezing the passage of time within a film.
The title Terrific Sergio stems from an anecdote from the set of the James Bond film From Russia with Love: upon seeing the photographs, the director and Sean Connery described them as “terrific”. Not being fluent in English, Strizzi interpreted the comment as meaning “terrifying”, whereas to everyone else it simply meant “extraordinary”.