Director and decorator of cinema, theater and Italian opera. He was born in Venice and one received the master's degree in architecture by the University of Florence. He initiated his race with Luchino Visconti, first like actor and later like assistant in diverse cinematographic, theater and operísticas productions; one became independent like director of opera at the beginning of the decade of 1950.

His acclaimed production of the work of William Shakespeare Romeo and Julieta (1960) it was the base of his third film, Romeo and Julieta (1968). Before he had made the comedy Camping (1958), dedicated to the actor Nino Manfredi, and the indómita woman (1967), inspired by the work of Shakespeare fierecilla tamed.

Its international reputation underwent a misfortune after the failure of Brother Sun, sister Moon (1972), mystic air recreation hippie of the life of san Francisco de Asís; it achieved greater success with the production for television Jesus de Nazaret (1978). With the exception of two filmed operas, the Traviata (1982) and Otello (1986), their later films have had a welcomed tibia, specially showy was the case of the Toscanini young person, retired in Venice after an only exhibition, in 1988. In 1995 it directed in the United Kingdom a new version of the novel Jane Eyre, of the English writer Charlotte Brontë and in 1990 an adaptation of Hamlet, carried out by Mel Gibson.