Enrico Cocozza, film-maker and tutor; born November 6, 1921, died December 27, 1997
ENRICO Cocozza, born of Italian parents in Glasgow, attended secondary schools in Filignano and Wishaw. He studied languages at Glasgow University, winning the Italian prize in four consecutive years and teaching undergraduates while simultaneously preparing for his own finals.
As Staff Sergeant Interpreter (1944-46) in 126 Italian Labour Battalion in Gorton, Manchester, he did much to promote the welfare and cultural education of the ”co-operator prisoners”, broadcast to Italy for the BBC, and edited a cultural review called Speranza.
After five years as assistant lecturer in Italian at Glasgow, he succumbed to his passion for film, studying in Rome and working with Cocteau and King Vidor in Paris. He became (1952-1960) an independent film producer and director, making 63 documentary films in 16mm format for a variety of clients including the Scottish Film Council, the Italian Consulate, and Colville’s.
His work included the prize-winning Chic’s Day, a sensitive study of adolescence in west central Scotland; The Silver Trumpet (1960-61), his last colour film; and Fit o’ The
Toon (1978), a single-window reportage of Main Street, Wishaw. He counter-balanced his disciplined directorial style by including occasional background shots of his rotund Hitchcockian self in his productions, driving stylish sports cars flamboyantly fast, and engaging in epic argument with the Inland Revenue. An accident which had made his eyes sensitive to strong light cut short this blossoming career in film-making.
He joined the Scottish College of Commerce in 1962, and from 1964 helped establish the new Pass and Honours degree programmes in Italian Studies in Strathclyde University. He had a charming classroom presence and was a much-loved and inspiring tutor. He completed senior research work on Jean Cocteau’s ideology as revealed in his films and retired in 1985. He was honoured by the Italian government for his sterling work in promoting Italian Studies in Scotland.
His rich and varied background made him suspicious of traditional monotone academics who lacked experience of life and the world. Rico much preferred the company of a small circle of close and valued friends, whom he treated generously and for whom he would occasionally cook the tastiest of meals.
Interested in regional dialects, he built up a rich collection of tape recordings of his adored and formidable mother, a nat-ural story-teller, talking in authentic turn-of-the-century Filignanese dialect and in rib-splitting Italo-Scots. He also published Assunta – The Story of Mrs Joe (Vantage Press, 1987), a lightly fictionalised account of her early life in the Campobasso region. When she died ”. . . Suddenly he felt alone and lost, lost as only a child can feel alone and lost.”
Illness plagued his later years. Diabetes eventually restricted his life to his flat in Wishaw. He had never married, and a small group of devoted relatives and friends gave him every support. The same friends may wish to seek an outlet for his unpublished short stories.
In August 1997 a very serious fire in the floor below killed
all but one of his pet cats and left him, after resuscitation by the ambulance men, suffering greatly from smoke inhalation and general debilitation. In hospital and then in a nursing
home his friends saw growing signs of deterioration.
His amiable manner and his elegant old-world courtesy hid a clear mind inclined to search for perfection in everything. He left strict instructions for a simple, almost stark funeral. His sense of refinement had led him to choose his resting place – Libberton – in an exceptionally beautiful spot looking towards Tinto Hill.
His gravestone, long prepared and a signal feature of his bedroom, carries three quotes: ”Lienfer c’est les autres” (Sartre), ”Enfin, l’oubli total” (Cocozza 1921-1997), and ”Rien n’importe” (Mayer), revealing his continuing love-affair with the cinema and with France, his honesty, and – Mayer being Louis B of Hollywood – his dark sense of whimsy