Mario Chiari; Italian Art Director, Designer

Mario Chiari, 79, Italian art director and costume designer, who was trained as an architect. After starting out in the theater, he began work in the film industry in 1940 and collaborated on many Italian and foreign films and on television productions. Some of the films he worked on include “Miracle in Milan,” directed by Vittorio de Sica (1951); “I Vitelloni,” by Federico Fellini (1953); “War and Peace,” by King Vidor (1956); “The Bible,” by John Huston (1966); and “Dr. Doolittle,” by Richard Fleischer (1967). In Rome on Sunday after what was described as a long illness.