Vittorio De Sica. Mario Monicelli. Francesco Rosi. Federico Fellini. Michelangelo Antonioni. Luchino Visconti. These are the biggest names in directing from Italian cinema during a golden era from 1945 to the 1960s and beyond. Some of the greatest movies ever made came from this era in this one country with fewer resources than Hollywood. All of these figures behind the camera are men. However, there was one woman who knew them all and worked with them all who has legendary status amongst women in cinema: Suso Cecchi d’Amico.
With more than 100 films to her credit, d’Amico worked on so many legendary films including Bicycle Thieves, Senso, Le Amiche, White Nights, Jesus of Nazareth, and The Leopard. Nicknamed “The Queen of Cinecittà” because of her continuous presence on set for many films she worked on at the legendary studio, d’Amico’s range included dramas and comedies, love stories, and social realism. Being among the very few female writers in a completely male-dominated industry, d’Amico would find herself amongst genius filmmakers who respected her highly as a writer among equals.
Early Life And First Scripts
Giovanna “Suso” Cecchi was born in 1914 in Rome to a painter mother and a literary critic father. Emilio Cecchi was an important figure in the early 20th century and was hired in the 1930s by the fascist government to head the state-backed film company Cines. It was young Giovanna’s introduction to film as many industry figures visited the home to meet her father. One of those visitors was theatre critic Silvio d’Amico and he introduced his son, Lele, to Giovanna. They would marry, and because of his association with anti-fascist groups, Lele would flee to Switzerland and return at the war’s end, albeit sick after contracting tuberculosis. The two would remain married until Lele’s death, but d’Amico would be the breadwinner in the home.
Having learned multiple languages, d’Amico was hired as an interpreter and secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Trade throughout the war. Following the fall of Mussolini and Italy’s liberation, she was hired to translate various books and plays for stage productions, some of them being directed by Luchiano Visconti. This would lead to her first screenwriting job working for producer Carlo Ponti and director Renato Castellani. That script was never made, but Castellani would bring her as one of seven writers in the comedy-drama My Son, The Professor in 1946. Her next credit was director Alberto Lattuada’s Flesh Will Surrender in 1947, which was also co-written by Federico Fellini before he himself became a director.
The Neorealist Club
The end of World War II and the release of Roberto Rossellini’s Rome Open City began a new type of cinema, neorealism. Shot on the cheap, on location, with mostly non-professional actors, these films established a new way to tell stories on screen and one that opened the floodgates for future directors. For example, Bicycle Thieves follows a man who can only work if he has his bike with him, but when it is stolen, he and his son go on the search for it or face unemployment in destitute Italy. The lead actor, Lamberto Maggiorani, was a brick-layer when he was cast and returned to manual labor because of the lack of acting opportunities after the film’s success. Although secure financially, d’Amico and her fellow collaborators were all sympathetic to the plight of many Italians left without work or money (Visconti was a communist, yet wealthy) and chose to make stories based on these real-life difficulties ordinary Italians faced.
In addition, she was reliable with directors with whom there were many friendships, such as with Visconti for all but two of his films. In addition, d’Amico called working with De Sica, “a great experience,” and learned a lot through him as he was both a director and actor. She called her screenplay with director Luigi Zampa The City Stand Trial the best she had ever written. While Antonioni never directed a comedy, nor was capable according to d’Amico, she said, “He was a very amusing man, believe it or not. Full of humor.” This friendship with others also included actors such as Anna Magnani and Sophia Loren, when she co-wrote the film Too Bad She’s Bad explicitly for Loren to play an early major role.
Authorship
With most Italian films in the neorealist era, there were multiple writers credited to one film. Thus, how much d’Amico contributed is unknown. For example, Bicycle Thieves had six credited screenwriters, Rocco and His Brothers had five, and Big Deal on Madonna Street had four. However, those movies on which she was a writer on remain among the most important made in the world, let alone in Italy, during the 1950s and 1960s. All of them had the same common themes involving class, especially among the poor, social power within post-war society, and life among common men and women in contrast to the elitists.
However, d’Amico did get a shot in writing for Hollywood, even though she was not credited, on William Wyler’s Roman Holiday. Looking to improve the original script for a more authentic feel, Wyler asked d’Amico and fellow writer Ennio Flaiano to polish it and were allowed to work from home, having never been sent to Hollywood. A number of things would make it onto the screen as Wyler liked their draft, creating an upbeat mood that coincided with the economic miracle in the 1950s. Part of her appeal as a hired writer was her ability to write strong female roles, even if they are small roles, in many of these films.
She would serve as a hostess in her apartment for many writing sessions for many of the films she worked on and directors felt comfortable with her creative input. When asked if she considered herself an auteur, d’Amico said: “I’m just an artisan, the author is the director… It is absolutely necessary to work closely with a director. To understand what he likes, how he feels, and what he wants. I think it’s useless to write something that doesn’t feel right for the director.”
Coronation Of A Singular Force
Cecchi D’Amico was nominated for an Oscar as a co-writer in Mario Monicelli’s Casanova 70 in 1965. For lifetime achievement, she was awarded a David di Donatello (Italian Oscars) in 1980, a special Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival in 1994, and the Jean Renoir Award by the Writers Guild of America in 2009. Among her final works was assisting Martin Scorsese in his documentary My Journey To Italy and collaborating one final time with Monicelli on what was his last movie, 2006’s The Roses Of The Desert. While there weren’t showers of awards given, d’Amico was interviewed many times in her last years discussing her life and the history she made.
Suso Cecchi d’Amico died at the age of 96 on July 31, 2010. When asked why she was a unique figure in Italian film as a female screenwriter, she said, “Perhaps I was the only one because then it didn’t occur to any other woman to do this job.”
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