Pioneering director Ermanno Olmi, one of the masters of post-war Italian cinema, has died in Asiago at the age of 86, sources said Monday. A self-taught director, the Bergamo native created his own personal cinema language that broke the mould in works such as Time Stood Still, The Circumstance and The Tree of Wooden Clogs (L'Albero degli zoccoli), which was awarded the Palme d'Or at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival. He also won the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion in In 1988 for La Leggenda del Santo Bevitore (The Legend of the Holy Drinker).
"With Ermanno Olmi we lost a master of cinema and a great example of culture and of life," Premier Paolo Gentiloni said via Twitter.
"His enchanted gaze told us about the roots of our country and made us understand them".
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