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Suso Cecchi d'Amico
Suso Cecchi d'Amico
Born	Giovanna Cecchi; 21 July 1914; Rome, Lazio, Kingdom of Italy
Died	31 July 2010 (aged 96); Rome, Lazio, Italy
Education	Lycée français Chateaubriand
Occupation(s)	Screenwriter, actress
Spouse	Fedele D'Amico (m. 1938; died 1990)
Children	Masolino D'Amico, Silvia D'Amico Bendicò, Caterina D'Amico
Parents	Emilio Cecchi (father); Leonetta Pieraccini (mother);
Relatives	Silvio D'Amico (father-in-law)

Giovanna Cecchi (21 July 1914 – 31 July 2010), known professionally as Suso Cecchi d'Amico, was an Italian screenwriter and actress. She was one of the first female Italian screenwriters and helped pioneer the Italian neorealist movement. Though her screenwriting career spanned sixty years, she won the 1980 David di Donatello Award for lifetime career^[1] as well as the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 1994 Venice Film Festival.^[2]

Cecchi d'Amico worked with virtually all of the most celebrated post-war Italian film directors, and wrote or co-wrote many award-winning films—among them:^[3]^[4]

Franco Zeffirelli: The Taming of the Shrew, Brother Sun, Sister Moon
Luchino Visconti: Bellissima, Rocco and His Brothers, Senso, Ludwig, The Leopard, Conversation Piece
Vittorio de Sica: Bicycle Thieves, Miracle in Milan
Michelangelo Antonioni: Le Amiche
Mario Monicelli: Big Deal on Madonna Street, Risate di gioia, Casanova 70
Alessandro Blasetti: Lucky to Be a Woman
Luigi Zampa: Angelina (film), To Live in Peace
Francesco Rosi: Salvatore Giuliano
Luigi Comencini: The Window to Luna Park
Alberto Lattuada: Flesh Will Surrender

She also wrote the libretto for Nino Rota's opera I due timidi and collaborated on the script of William Wyler's Roman Holiday.^[2] She was a member of the jury at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.^[2]

Early life and education

Giovanna Cecchi was born July 21st, 1914, in Rome. She was immediately renamed Susanna by her father, and her parents’ Tuscan heritage soon nicknamed her “Suso”. Her father, Emilio Cecchi (1884-1966), was from Florence, known for his work as a literary critic and author, but also as a film producer and director, while her mother, Leonetta Pieraccini (1882-1977), originated from Siena and was a well-known painter and writer.^[5]^[6]

Suso attended the French lycée in Rome and then proceeded to pursue higher education in Switzerland and Cambridge.^[7] Upon her return to Rome, she used her proficiency in languages to secure work with the Ministry of Foreign Trade.^[8] In 1932, her father returned from a two-year professorship in the United States. Having witnessed the work being done in the film industry abroad, he was made the new director of the Cines studios by the government. Here, D’Amico's exposure to the film industry began as she frequented the soundstages, familiarizing herself with the processes, crews, writers, and actors.^[9]^[10] In 1938, she married musicologist Fedele "Lele" D'Amico, son of theatre critic Silvio D'Amico. Though Lele went into hiding during World War II due to his work for an anti-Fascist publication, the pair had three children who they themselves made significant contributions to Italian culture: Masolino, Silvia, and Caterina.^[11]^[8]

Career

With the war to come, d’Amico left the Ministry and became a translator of literary works, all the while being asked by her father’s peers to read scripts in order to give her feedback. Later, she was asked by producer Carlo Ponti and director Renato Castellani to write one herself and her career as a screenwriter was launched.^[12] Earning herself the nickname of the Grand Lady of Italian Cinema, d’Amico was a pioneer for women screenwriters and welcomed by her male counterparts thanks to the value of her input as a female perspective that was otherwise lacking in the writers’ room, she helped create and write for and about credible female characters.^[13] Moreover, she proliferated during the time that Italian neorealism was being created and gaining global interest; she developed a style of writing that combined her literary education and understanding of the people, and was distinct for its succinct dialogue. She kept actors’ lines short because, true to neorealist form, they were often amateurs with little experience, and so, it was easier to keep their lines short.^[8]

Death

Suso Cecchi d’Amico died on July 31st 2010, in Rome. Her death was noted by president of Italy Giorgio Napolitano who stated that she was a “great protagonist of one of the best seasons of Italian cinema.”^{.^[3]}^[14]

Filmography

Screenwriter

1946: Professor, My Son
1946: Rome, Free City
1947: Flesh Will Surrender
1947: To Live in Peace
1947: Angelina
1948: It's Forever Springtime
1948: Bicycle Thieves
1949: Heaven over the Marshes
1949: Fabiola
1949: The Walls of Malapaga
1950: His Last Twelve Hours
1950: Pact with the Devil
1950: Father's Dilemma
1950: Romanzo d'amore
1951: Honeymoon Deferred
1951: Bellissima
1951: Miracle in Milan
1952: The City Stands Trial
1952: The World Condemns Them
1952: Hello Elephant
1952: Red Shirts
1953: Empty Eyes
1953: Eager to Live
1953: The Lady Without Camelias
1953: I Vinti
1953 Of Life and Love
1954: Senso
1954: Graziella
1954: 100 Years of Love
1954: A Slice of Life
1954: The Cheerful Squadron
1954: Too Bad She's Bad
1954: Forbidden
1955: Le amiche
1956: Kean
1956: The Window to Luna Park
1956: Lucky to Be a Woman
1957: Husbands in the City
1957: Defend My Love
1957: White Nights
1958: Big Deal on Madonna Street
1958: La sfida
1959: ...and the Wild Wild Women
1959: Violent Summer
1960: The Passionate Thief
1960: La Contessa azzurra
1960: It Started in Naples
1961: The Wastrel
1962: Salvatore Giuliano
1962: The Best of Enemies
1962: Three Fables of Love
1964: Time of Indifference
1965: Me, Me, Me... and the Others
1965: Casanova 70
1965: Sandra
1966: Sex Quartet
1966: Shoot Loud, Louder... I Don't Understand
1967: The Taming of the Shrew
1967: The Stranger
1968: Pride and Vengeance
1969: Senza sapere niente di lei
1969: Giacomo Casanova: Childhood and Adolescence
1970: Metello
1971: Lady Liberty
1972: Perché?
1972: Devil in the Brain
1972: Brother Sun, Sister Moon
1972: The Adventures of Pinocchio (Film and TV cuts)
1972: Ludwig
1973: Amore e ginnastica
1974: Amore amaro
1974: Conversation piece
1975: Prete, fai un miracolo
1976: Tell Me You Do Everything for Me
1976: The Innocent
1976: Caro Michele
1977: Jesus of Nazareth (miniserie TV)
1983: Les Mots pour le dire
1984: Bertoldo, Bertoldino e... Cacasenno
1985: The Two Lives of Mattia Pascal
1985: Cuore
1986: Caravaggio (UK)
1986: Let's Hope It's a Girl
1987: Big Deal After 20 Years
1987: La Storia
1987: Dark Eyes
1987: Private Affairs
1988: The Rogues
1988: Stradivari
1989: La moglie ingenua e il marito malato (TV)
1990: Dark Illness
1991: Rossini! Rossini!
1992: Parenti serpenti
1993: The End Is Known
1994: Cari fottutissimi amici
1995: Facciamo paradiso
1998: The Room of the Scirocco
1998: Der Letzte Sommer – Wenn Du nicht willst
1999: Panni sporchi
1999: Un amico magico: il maestro Nino Rota
1999: My Voyage to Italy
2000: Come quando fuori piove (TV)
2000: Il cielo cade
2005: Raul: Straight to Kill
2005: Three Brothers
2006: The Roses of the Desert

As actress

1962: Boccaccio 70 (segment "Renzo e Luciana")

References

^ David di Donatello Awards for 1980
^ ^a ^b ^c Lane, John Francis (1 August 2010). "Suso Cecchi D'Amico obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
^ ^a ^b ABC News: Veteran Italian screenwriter Cecchi D'Amico known for neo-realist films dies at 96 July 31, 2010
^ Screenwriter Suso Cecchi D'Amico Dies Jul 31, 2010
^ Basoli, A.G. "Screenwriting with your eyes: an interview with Suso Cecchi d'Amico." Cineaste, Fall 2002, 24.
^ Nelmes, Jill, and Selbo, Jule, eds. Women Screenwriters : An International Guide. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2015, 444
^ Pirro, Dierdre. “Suso Cecchi D’Amico.” The Florentine, October 23, 2019. https://www.theflorentine.net/2019/10/23/suso-cecchi-amico/
^ ^a ^b ^c Grimes, William. "Suso Cecchi D'Amico, writer of literate screenplays, dies at 96." New York Times, August 4, 2010.
^ "Suso Cecchi D'Amico." In Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2010.
^ Nelmes, Jill, and Selbo, Jule, eds. Women Screenwriters : An International Guide. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2015, 444.
^ Lane, John Francis (1 August 2010). "Suso Cecchi D'Amico obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
^ Mikael Colville-Andersen. "The Storytellers - Interview with Suso Cecchi D'Amico". Archived from the original on 2015-03-17. Retrieved 2015-01-04.
^ Basoli, A.G. "Screenwriting with your eyes: an interview with Suso Cecchi d'Amico." Cineaste, Fall 2002, 24-27.
^ CBC. “Bicycle Thief Screenwritter Cecchi D’Amico Dies,” July 31, 2010. https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/bicycle-thief-screenwriter-cecchi-d-amico-dies-1.904708