Mario Monicelli Biography
Mario Monicelli (1915 - 2010) was a film director and producer born in Viareggio to a family originally from Mantua. The father is a theater critic journalist and therefore lives and breathes the air of a city that moves in culture. An unconventional character, Mario Monicelli, who has rightfully entered the Olympus of the most famous Italian directors, competing with Dino Risi and Luigi Comencini for the scepter of Italian comedy, while developing a dramatic register that allowed him to hide behind laughter, restlessness, bitterness and anger. After classical high school he graduated in history and philosophy, thanks to a friend, he approached cinema. After having been an assistant and screenwriter, and having also participated in a Venice Film Festival (in 1935 with the Ragazzi di Via Pál), Mario Monicelli made his official directorial debut with the film Totò cerca casa, in 1949, paired with Steno (Stefano Vanzina) with whom he made seven comedic films, including Guardie e ladri (1951), and one drama (Le infedeli, 1953). The successful pairing Monicelli-Steno launched the Italian comedy, thanks to the actor Totò (Antonio De Curtis) they managed to tackle both films with serious themes such as poverty and unemployment, and those with lighter and more light-hearted tones. He continues with his creative streak to write screenplays and comes into contact with other famous filmmakers of the early fifties. Many post-war masterpieces bear his name: I soliti ignoti (1958) and The great war (1959), I Compagni (1963) and Casanova '70 (1965) for which he obtained an Oscar nomination, L'armata Brancaleone (1966 ), The Fairies (1967), The Girl with the Gun (1968), A Little Little Bourgeois (1977). With this work the director was able to narrate the violence of the Seventies, the years of lead. Then followed by My Friends (1975), Dear Michele (1976), Journey with Anita (1979), In the Hotel Room (1981), Il Marchese del Grillo (1982), My Friends Act II (1982), Let's Hope It's a Girl (1986), The Picari (1987), The Dark Evil (1990), Relatives Serpents (1992), Dear Fucking Friends (1994), The Desert Roses (2006). He died by suicide at the age of 95.
