*Top,* Marcello Mastroianni on the set of *The Stranger* (1967); above, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Silvana Mangano on the set of *The Decameron* (1971).

Enrico Montesano and Isabella Biagini on the set of *Boccaccio* (1972).

*Top,* Luchino Visconti on the set of *The Stranger;* *above,* Ira von Fürstenberg and Patrick O’Neal on the set of *Matchless* (1967).

Jack Hawkins in character for *Waterloo* (1970).

Tamara Baroni on the set of *Boccaccio.*

One-Frame Films

Set photographer Alfonso Avincola captured some of the 20th century’s greatest actors, from the divas of Italian neo-realism to the Young Turks of New Hollywood

By Sam Kashner

The still photographer on a movie set must be nearly invisible—stealthily alert to the moment that will distill time, like a sonogram of the movie taking shape. There are few virtuosos of the form.

Alfonso Avincola is one of them. A treasure of Italian cinema who is revered in America, Avincola is now 91 and living in Los Angeles. I invited him and his daughter, Federica Carrion, to Dan Tana’s, on Santa Monica Boulevard, last fall. He had never been, and Carrion said he was curious about the place. Wearing a leather jacket, he entered the crowded, noisy restaurant with a sure step. A shy man of delicate features, Avincola has a thatch of gray hair that hangs over his forehead, giving him an almost mischievous look.