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Mario Monicelli

Highest Rated: 100% The Passionate Thief (1960)

Lowest Rated: 40% The Great War (1959)

Birthday: May 16, 1915

Birthplace: Rome, Lazio, Italy

Heralded as a masterful interpreter of the "Commedia all'Italiana," screenwriter/director Mario Monicelli was not only one of Italy's most beloved and critically celebrated filmmakers (perhaps second to only Federico Fellini) but was also recognized for spawning the careers of some of the country's favorite actors. The short list of collaborators includes such notables as Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassman, Alberto Sordi, Monica Vitti, Anna Magnani, and Giancarlo Giannini, to name but a few. Monicelli's greatest strength was his deft ability to tightrope-walk the fine line between humor and tragedy (the defining nature of Italian film comedy), where life's cruelty meets its absurdity head-on. He began as a writer and director of short films in the 1930s before teaming up with artist Steno in the '40s--the duo produced eight films in half as many years. It was not until the 1950s, however, that he broke into the international scene with arguably his best works: the Academy Award-nominated heist film"Big Deal on Madonna Street" in 1958 and "The Great War" a year later, for which he won a Golden Lion. He continued to work prolifically throughout his life, winning a lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival in 1991. He died in late 2010, in a deliberate and non-ironic farewell to the comedic art form he championed, by jumping out of his hospital window while awaiting surgery for prostate cancer at the age of 95.

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Highest-Rated Movies

100% 79% The Passionate Thief
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100% 81% Bitter Rice
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89% 90% Big Deal on Madonna Street
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89% 88% The Organizer
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62% 78% Under the Tuscan Sun
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50% 78% Boccaccio '70
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40% 94% The Great War
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Totò e Carolina
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Fede cieca
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The Tailor's Maid
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Filmography

Movies TV Shows
Portrait of My Father 2010 Self The Roses of the Desert 55% 2006 Director, Screenwriter Under the Tuscan Sun 62% 78% 2003 Old Man with Flowers Actor Fede cieca 2000 Actor The Cyclone 74% 1997 Gino Voice Looking for Paradise 1995 Director, Writer Rossini! Rossini! 1991 Director, Screenwriter La moglie ingenua, il marito malato 1988 Director Let's Hope It's a Girl 57% 1985 Director The Two Lives of Mattia Pascal (Le Due Vite di Mattia Pascal) 1985 Director Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno 1984 Director, Screenwriter Amici miei: Atto II 1982 Director, Writer The Marquis of Grillo 1981 Director Sono fotogenico 1980 Actor Hurricane Rosy 1980 Director Lovers and Liars 13% 1979 Director Un borghese piccolo piccolo 1977 Director An Average Little Man 84% 1977 Director, Writer The New Monsters 66% 1977 Director Signore e signori buonanotte 1976 Director Dear Michael 1976 Director My Friends 91% 1975 Director Come Home and Meet My Wife 1974 Director, Writer We Want the Colonels 60% 1973 Director, Writer Lady Liberty 1972 Director
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