UGO MARIOTTI: TOUR GUIDE & HOST

A Tuscan himself, Ugo Mariotti worked as a film producer/director, graduating from the London Film School. After his return to Rome to work on documentaries for RAI Television and the "spaghetti westerns" of Cinecittà, Ugo established Eldorado Films. Among the company's work was the co-production of Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now*, a feature film shot in Venice with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. (*Refer Ugo's notes below.)

Ugo then moved to Australia where he worked for SBS Television and wrote film scripts including the award-winning Johnno, based on a book by the Australian author David Malouf.

Still a Tuscan at heart, he has returned to Italy where he lives and works at Trove, the Mariotti farm. His son Brian Marco, a Roman-born architect, is doing the designs for the restoration of the farmhouse whose original core dates from the 1400s. Ugo loves good food, history, hiking, horseriding and is a qualified tourist guide.

Note from Ugo re the making of the cult classic, Don't Look Now, staring Julie Christie & Donald Sutherland:

Don't Look Now, on which I was the Italian co-producer, was a 50/50 production between the English film company Casey Productions and Eldorado Films of which I was managing director. However, as a co-production it required careful balancing of talents and technicians to be accepted for Italian distribution and prize money. This is why I am listed in the credits only as casting director. I did in fact do the casting, and was also instrumental in pursuading our English director, Nicholas Roeg, to use Veneziano musician Pino Donaggio to write the movie score. (It was to be Pino's first film score and he still remembers how we met. He later scored many films including Carrie, Blow Out and Raising Cain, as well as writing numerous songs including You Don't Have to Say You Love Me which was famously recorded by both Elvis Presley and Dusty Springfield.) I also replaced the film's original art director with a Venezian art professor which is why Don't Look Now was so successful in capturing the authenticity of Venice.