Suso Cecchi d'Amico

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 as well as the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 1994 Venice Film Festival.

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:

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, 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.

Suso attended the French lycée in Rome and then proceeded to pursue higher education in Switzerland and Cambridge. Upon her return to Rome, she used her proficiency in languages to secure work with the Ministry of Foreign Trade. 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, familiarising herself with the processes, crews, writers, and actors. 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. 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. 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.

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: Unknown Woman 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")