Departures of note

Silvia d'Amico was born in Rome on 2 December 1940, the second daughter of screenwriter Suso Cecchi D'Amico and musicologist Fedele d'Amico. Growing up surrounded by cinema, she moved in the circle of her mother's friends and colleagues, and in 1960, at the invitation of Carol Levi Guadagni, took part in the founding of the first actors' agency in Italy, the William Morris agency. She later left to work with screenwriter and director Alfredo Giannetti. With Giannetti she made the films La ragazza in prestito (1964) and Correva l'anno di grazia 1870 (1972), the latter of which she also produced, as well as two television series: La famiglia Benvenuti (1968-1970), which grew from her idea of telling the story of a modern family and became a huge ratings success, and Tre donne with Anna Magnani (1970). That success laid the foundation for a lasting collaboration with Rai as a subject writer and screenwriter, for which she signed Dedicato a un pretore (1973) and Vita di Antonio Gramsci (1981), the latter written with her mother. As a producer, through her companies named Excelsior and under the stage name Bendicò, she produced some of her most important films, including State buoni se potete by Luigi Magni (1983) and Oci ciornie by Nikita Mikhalkov (1987), which won the prize for Marcello Mastroianni's performance at Cannes, as well as Il cielo cade (2001), awarded a Globo d'oro for best debut work. From 1974 to 1977 she was the companion of Roberto Rossellini, whose film Il Messia (1975) she followed throughout production, and with whom she planned an unfinished film on the youthful friendship of Marx and Engels.