Biography
Leo Catozzo (also credited as Leo Cattozzo) was an Italian film editor. Born in Adria in 1912, he graduated in law and cello before studying set design and directing at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. He entered the film industry in the early 1940s as a screenwriter and assistant director, primarily on comedies directed by Mario Mattoli.
Catozzo began editing in the 1940s and worked with directors including Alberto Lattuada, Mario Soldati and, most notably, Federico Fellini on films such as La Strada (1954), Nights of Cabiria (1957), La Dolce Vita (1960) and 8½ (1963). He also edited the international production War and Peace (1956), for which he received an American Cinema Editors Award. Allergic to acetone, he invented and patented the self-perforating adhesive tape film splicer known as the CIR-Catozzo (or Pressa Catozzo), first used on Nights of Cabiria; he later received an Academy Scientific and Technical Award for the device.
Catozzo died in Santa Severa, near Rome, in 1997.
