Gabriella Cristiani

Who is Gabriella Cristiani?

Gabriella Cristiani is an Italian film editor with about twenty feature film credits. She has had a notable collaboration with director Bernardo Bertolucci. Early in her career she assisted editor Franco Arcalli on two of Bertolucci's films, Last Tango in Paris and 1900. Arcalli was the "supervising editor" on a 1977 film, Berlinguer, I Love You, that was one of Cristiani's first feature editing credits; the film was directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci - Bernardo's brother. Arcalli was to have edited Bernardo Bertolucci's next film, La Luna, but he died during production; Cristiani, who was assisting, then took over as editor.

Cristiani edited Bernardo Bertolucci's 1982 film Tragedy of a Ridulous Man. She won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for The Last Emperor, which won a total of 9 Oscars as well as numerous other honors. Cristiani's work on Bertolucci's next film, The Sheltering Sky, is noted for a technical innovation, which was the "nonlinear" editing of the film using digital techniques. Sheltering Sky was Cristiani's final film with Bertolucci. Cristiani has edited films over the last decade with several different directors, and she herself directed and edited the 1999 film, Ladies Room.