London, April 16 :  Illustrious Italian director Vittorio Taviani has died. He was 88. One half of the duo Taviani brothers (with Paolo), Vittorio passed away after a long illness, his daughter said, BBC reported.

The filmmaker would be cremated in a private ceremony. The director duo became household names in Italy in the 1960s. The older of the two brothers, Vittorio, was a law student at the University of Pisa, but dropped out after he became inclined towards cinema.

Before directing "A Man for Burning", their first feature in 1962 with Valentino Orsini, the Taviani brothers also wrote and directed short films. The duo also served as screenwriters.

Always working in partnership, the brothers took turns to direct alternate scenes in their films, with the other watching. Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni had given a portmanteau "Paolovittorio" to them.

They produced their final film together - "Rainbow: A Private Affair" last year.

In 1977, their movie "Padre Padrone" won the Palme D'Or in Cannes. Their docudrama "Caesar Must Die" was honoured with the Golden Bear prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 2012. Both penned the script and Paolo directed the film.

According to the Repubblica newspaper, the Taviani brothers were regarded as the master filmmakers of Italian cinema, who narrated the history, reality and contradictions of Italy since the 1960s.