An Italian set decorator and dresser, production designer and art director, who worked on more than 100 films and television shows in his art department career. Osvaldo Desideri started out dressing the sets on such films as Luchino Visconti’s The Conformist (1970) and Bernardo Bertolucci’s Death in Venice (1971) and was assistant art director on Billy Wilder’s Avanti! (1972). He would go on to win an Oscar for Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987), shared with Ferdinando Scarfiotti and Bruno Cesari. Across his career, he worked with many of the great Italian directors, creating the set decoration for the likes of Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974) and Beyond Good and Evil (1977), Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Roberto Rossellini’s The Messiah (all 1975) and Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America (1984).
