Dante Ferretti was born on February 26' 1943 at Macerata where he attended art college, making an early start in his preparation for the world of film and in particular production design. After college he moved to Rome and while studying for his degree at the Academy of Fine Art, he worked as assistant to the architect Aldo Tomassini. Then, as assistant to the production designer Luigi Scaccianoce, he participated in the preparation of severa! of Pier Paolo Pasolini's films: The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, Hawks and Sparrows, Oedipus Rex. While still working with Pasolini, he was for the first time appointed production designer for the film Medea. This was the beginning of a long collaboration that would end only with the last film of this great director, Salo or The 120 Days of Sodom.From the start Ferretti exhibited a true genius for production design with his powerful and creative visions. He then went on to work with important ltalian directors like Marco Bellocchio, Elio Petri, Sergio Citti, Liliana Cavani, Marco Ferreri, Ettore Scola and Franco Zeffirelli. At the same time he was making a name for himself designing sets for the opera, staging numerous works for opera houses ali over the world. His association with Federico Fellini was an especially fortunate one. From Orchestra Rehearsal to The Vozl:e o/ the Moon, his impressive designs proved to be congenial to the fantasies and dreamlike quality of Fellini's world. In1986he tumed his attention abroad where he established himself on an Internationallevel with, for example, fascinating and fantasticai fiims 1ike Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name o/ the Rose, Terry Gilliam's TheAdventures o/ Baron Miinchausen, for which he received an Oscar nomination. In 1990 he was production designer for Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet; in 1993 his collaboration with Martin Scorsese began with the film The Age of Innocence. This association allowed Ferretti to give free rein to his fantasy and creativity resulting in unforgettable designs such as Casino and IV.tndun, Gangs of New York and his latest effort The Aviator. Another American fi1m for which Ferretti was production designer is Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain.
Ferretti's undeniable creative genius, his professional attention to detail, and his great versatility, which bave marked his career, bave eamed him a worldwide reputation as one of the greatest living production designers. A professional who, as he himsdf points out, stillloves to draw huge sketches which can instantly convey the atmosphere of a film not just to the director but to his collaborators as well, starting with the set decorator Francesca Lo Schiavo, who has been nominated with Ferretti five times for an Oscar.