Suso Cecchi d’Amico

Born in the Italian capital on July 21, 1914, Susanna Giovanna Cecchi was the daughter of the painter Leonetta Pieraccini, and the writer and screenwriter Emilio Cecchi ( Little Ancient World ). Her father instilled in her her passion for English writers, and enrolled her in the Lyceum in Rome. The young ‘Suso’ – the nickname with which her family knew her – had a very hard time during World War II, when she took refuge in the Tuscan countryside, together with one of her uncles.

After the war was over, in the years in which Italian Neorealism was being forged, Cecchi made his debut on the big screen with the script for Mio figlio professore , a dramatic comedy by Renato Castellani starring Aldo Fabrizi , who would become a friend of the screenwriter. She married Fedele d’Amico, a highly regarded musicologist in Italy, with whom she had three children.

Aldo Fabrizi and another great friend of d’Amico, the actress Anna Magnani , introduced him to Cesare Zavattini , who was already one of the great screenwriters of Italian cinema at that time. Aware of his talent, Zavattini insisted that she write with him Bicycle Thief , directed by Vittorio De Sica , and it seems that she contributed the idea of ​​the stolen bicycle. She reprized with Zavattini and De Sica in Miracle in Milan .

Zavattini was also the author of the plot for Bellísima , which marked the writer’s first meeting with the director Luchino Visconti . The two got on so well that they have since formed one of the most prolific professional associations in the history of Italian cinema. The fragment of the director of the collective film Siamo donne , Senso , White Nights , the unforgettable and classic The Leopard and Rocco and his brothers , the segment of Bocaccio 70 , Sandra , Ludwig (Louis II of Bavaria) , Confidences and The innocent. That is to say, the director did without it on very few occasions ( Death in Venice , The Fall of the Gods ). They also collaborated on the ambitious adaptation of Marcel Proust ‘s In Search of Lost Time , which Visconti never made it to the screen.

The screenwriter also worked with other brilliant directors, such as Michelangelo Antonioni ( The Friends ), Alessandro Blasetti ( First Communion , Fabiola , The Luck of Being a Woman ), Francesco Rosi ( The Challenge ), Franco Zeffirelli ( Brother Sun, Sister Moon , Jesus de Nazaret ) and regularly collaborated with Mario Monicelli , in the famous comedy Rufufú , and titles such as Mortadella , and Las rosas del desierto. Amico also worked in Hollywood productions, as he wrote Capri and apparently did a small collaboration for Roman Holiday , although it does not appear in the titles. He also co -wrote Black Eyes , for Russian Nikita Mikhalkov .

The writer was active until an advanced age, since her last films date from 2006, when she appears credited as a screenwriter in In search of the tomb of Christ , by Giulio Base . At that time she was already 92 years old.