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Mario Monicelli worked with some of Italy’s biggest stars. (Joel Saget/ AFP/ Getty Images/ File 2008) |
ROME — Oscar-nominated director and screenwriter Mario Monicelli, considered one of the fathers of the Italian comedy of the 1940s-1960s, died Monday after jumping from a fifth-story hospital window, the hospital said. He was 95.
Mr. Monicelli was being treated at Rome’s San Giovanni Hospital for pancreatic problems and leaped to his death Monday night, said Anna Scoltore, who heads the hospital’s media office. She said he had been admitted a few days ago and that it appeared that his condition was terminal.
Mr. Monicelli worked with some of the biggest names of the “commedia all’Italiana,’’ including Marcello Mastroianni, Toto, and Alberto Sordi.
“He was my Fellini,’’ Giovanni Veronese, a fellow Tuscan director, told Sky TG24, a news channel. “It’s a terrible day.’’
Mr. Monicelli directed Mastroianni in the acclaimed “Big Deal on Madonna Street’’ (1958).
A year later, his film “The Great War’’ picked up the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, which honored Mr. Monicelli with a lifetime achievement award in 1991.
He was nominated for the Oscars’ best foreign-language film for “Casanova ‘70’’ of 1965 and “I Compagni’’ of 1963, according to film databases.
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