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Suso Cecchi d’Amico, Italian Screenwriter
Film Society of Lincoln Center presents a retrospective of her work.
Claudia Cardinale in Sandra, Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1965; 105m. Screenwriter: Suso Cecchi d’Amico
A vital figure of postwar Italian cinema, with over 100 scripts to her name, Suso Cecchi d’Amico was the screenwriter behind powerful work by Visconti, Antonioni, and others.
She was born Giovanna Cecchi in Rome to a Tuscan painter, Leonetta Pieraccini, and the literary critic Emilio Cecchi, a major figure in 20th-century Italian letters. For a few years in the early 1930s, before the Cinecittà studios were built in Rome, her father had been entrusted by Mussolini’s government with running the state-backed film company Cines.
Apart from Visconti, the two directors with whom Suso worked most frequently were Luigi Comencini and Monicelli. Her work with Comencini included his excellent TV adaptation of Elsa Morante’s La Storia (History, 1986). She co-scripted many films for Monicelli including Casanova 70 (1965), which starred Marcello Mastroianni and received an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay.
In 1994 Suso was awarded the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the Venice film festival.
Suso Cecchi d’Amico (Giovanna Cecchi), screenwriter, born 21 July 1914; died 31 July 2010
A retrospective of her films starts this weekend. More info here.