Suso Cecchi d’Amico
Biography
Rome, 21 July 1914 – Rome, 31 July 2010
Universally recognised as ‘the first lady of Italian cinema’, Suso Cecchi d’Amico was the most productive and esteemed screenwriter in post-war Italy, authoring and co-authoring over 140 screenplays and story outline in her 40-year career.
The daughter of the Florentine literary critic Emilio Cecchi and the painter and writer Leonetta Pieraccini, Suso Cecchi grew up in a cultured family environment, frequenting literati and many members of the Roman film community. In 1938, she married musicologist Fedele d’Amico, by whom she had three children.
In 1945, in order to support her family in the absence of her ill husband, she began working as a translator and writing for a number of magazines. It was then that producer Carlo Ponti asked her to collaborate on the screenplay for Mio figlio professore (Professor, My Son, Renato Castellani, 1946).
Her works, often written in collaboration with others, according to a custom that became programmatic in post-war Italian cinema, include such important films as Vittorio De Sica’s Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves) (1948), and many works by Luchino Visconti, including Bellissima (1951), Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers, 1960) and Il gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963). She experimented with several genres, including comedy: let us remember at least Peccato che sia una canaglia by Alessandro Blasetti (Too Bad She’s Bad, 1954) and I soliti ignoti by Mario Monicelli (Big Deal on Madonna Street, 1958).
Many other important film-makers, including Antonio Pietrangeli, Luigi Comencini and Francesco Maselli, relied on Cecchi d’Amico’s extraordinary visual sense, which allowed her to translate stories written on paper into images, in the service of a shared creative vision. Moreover, it was well known that the scriptwriter had a particular talent for understanding the psychology of the director who had called her, often finding pragmatic solutions that satisfied both the creativity of the filmmaker and the budgetary needs of the producer.
Her skill was recognised internationally, as demonstrated by her collaboration with William Wyler for Roman Holiday (1953). Cecchi d’Amico’s name appears, together with that of Ennio Flaiano, in the credits only in the Italian version of the film. This despite the fact that she played an important role in adapting the post-war atmosphere for the big screen, avoiding clichés and dated stereotypes. The much celebrated Vespa ride of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck through the streets of Rome is one of the fruits of this reworking process.
Cecchi d’Amico continued to work until the early 21st century, also writing for television. She signed his last film script in 2005 Raul – diritto di uccidere (Raul – Right to Kill, Andrea Bolognini).
During her decades-long career, she received many prizes and awards, including seven Nastri d’Argento and six David di Donatello. In 1994, she received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival.
Disclaimer: The online publication of some reproductions of subjects, treatments and screenplays written by Suso Cecchi d’Amico in collaboration with others is for study and research purposes only. We remain at the disposal of the co-authors who could not be traced
