21 Facts About Mario Monicelli

Mario Monicelli was nominated six times for an Oscar, and received the Golden Lion for his career.

Mario Monicelli was the second of the five children of Tomaso Monicelli, a journalist, and Maria Carreri, a housewife.

Mario Monicelli tended to write critically about Italian films while praising American and French films.

Mario Monicelli later recounted that his non-nationalistic taste might have been a veiled form of anti-fascism.

Mario Monicelli later returned to Tuscany to complete his studies with the department of Literature and Philosophy of the University of Pisa.

Mario Monicelli delayed his graduation until he was drafted into the army.

Mario Monicelli was therefore able to skip the various stages of professional training and was sent, together with Mondadori, to work as a camera assistant in the production of Gustav Machaty's film Ballerine.

Mario Monicelli said that this experience was important for his training, as he learned to.

In 1940 Mario Monicelli enlisted in the cavalry, hoping that this choice could avoid him being sent to Russia or to Africa.

Mario Monicelli was blacklisted and boycotted for his writings and endured a series of failures.

Later on, Mario Monicelli said he could understand his father's decision.

Mario Monicelli had been unjustly cut off from his job, even after the war was over, and he felt he had nothing left to do here.

Mario Monicelli made his official debut as a director in 1949 along with Steno, with the film Toto cerca casa, starring the comedy genius Toto.

From 1953 onwards Mario Monicelli worked alone, without leaving his role as a writer of screenplays.

Mario Monicelli's career includes some of the masterpieces of Italian cinema.

Mario Monicelli received two more Academy Award nominations with I compagni, a heartfelt homage to "humanitarian socialism" and The Girl with the Pistol, which tackled the themes of bride kidnapping and honor killing, still relevant in the Southern-Italian culture of the time.

At the age of 90, Mario Monicelli decided to go and live on his own, in order to remain self-sufficient and survive to ageing for a longer time.

Mario Monicelli died on 29 November 2010 at the age of 95.

Mario Monicelli killed himself by jumping from a window of the San Giovanni Hospital in Rome, where he had been admitted a few days earlier for prostate cancer in the terminal stage.

Mario Monicelli had two daughters, Martina and Ottavia, from Antonella Salerni.

Mario Monicelli had a third daughter, Rosa, from his last companion Chiara Rapaccini.