Biography
Mario Monicelli (May 16, 1915 – November 29, 2010) was an Italian director and screenwriter and one of the masters of the Commedia all'Italiana (Comedy Italian style). Description above from the Wikipedia article Mario Monicelli,licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Complete Filmography

Ciao Marcello - Mastroianni l'antidivo
2024
as Self (archive footage)

Opera Prima
2021
as Self
Opera Prima is a tribute and a journey through the evolution that cinema has had in Italy. Tayu Vlietstra, a pupil of Bertolucci, carries out an inve...

Monica Vitti, une étoile dans la nuit
2017
as Self (archive footage)

Vittorio Gassman, le flamboyant
2015
as Self

Cinema Italiano: Moments of Truth
2014
as Self
Documentary about Italian cinema.

Monicelli: La versione di Mario
2012
as Self (archive footage)
The life and work of master Italian filmmaker Mario Monicelli (1915-2010).
Noi c'eravamo
2011
as Self

Voi siete qui
2011
as Self

Maestro di che!
2011
as Self
Tribute to the director Mario Monicelloi who, interviewed by Johnny Palomba, recalls his life and his works.
Qui finisce l'Italia
2010

Portrait Of My Father
2010
as Self
A labor of love documentary, in which a daughter, with the help of various talking heads, looks back on the life work of her father.

L'ultimo gattopardo - Ritratto di Goffredo Lombardo
2010
as Self

Vittorio racconta Gassman: Una vita da mattatore
2010
as Self

The New Brancaleone's Army
2010
Director, Writer

What Do You Know About Me
2009
as Self
Until the 1970s, Italian cinema dominated the international scene, even competing with Hollywood. Then, in just a few years, came its rapid decline, t...

Vittorio D.
2009
as Self
A documentary about Vittorio de Sica with clips of his films and testimonials from friends and family.

Franco Cristaldi e il suo cinema Paradiso
2009

Next to the Colosseum there’s Monti
2008
as Himself
There's an area of Rome, near the Colosseum, called Monti. Given famous Italian director Mario Monicelli, though born in Tuscany, has lived there for ...

Next to the Colosseum there’s Monti
2008
Director
There's an area of Rome, near the Colosseum, called Monti. Given famous Italian director Mario Monicelli, though born in Tuscany, has lived there for ...

SoloMetro
2007
as Anziano in metropolitana

The Roses of the Desert
2006
Director, Story, Screenplay
A sanitary battalion of Italian Army is sent to Sorman oasis in Lybia during the Africa campaign in 1940. Soon an Italian missionary, living nearby, s...

Marcello, una vita dolce
2006
as Self
After shooting to fame with Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” (1960), actor Marcello Mastroianni (1924-1996) starred in more than 160 films in his ne...

Adolfo Celi, a Man for Two Worlds
2006
as Self
italian documentary

Mario Bava: Operazione paura
2004
as Self
Mario Bava Operazione Paura", hosted by Joe Dante, is an hommage of the Master of the Terror, the italian director Mario Bava

I nostri trent'anni - Generazioni a confronto
2004
as Self
Various generations of filmmakers talk about what cinema means for them.

Under the Tuscan Sun
2003
as Old Man with Flowers
After a rough divorce, Frances, a 35-year-old professor and writer from San Francisco takes a tour of Tuscany at the urgings of her friends. On a whim...

Letters from Palestine
2003
Director
Eleven Italian filmmakers show in eleven segments the terrible conditions of the Palestinian people living in Jerusalem.

A cavallo della tigre
2002
Original Film Writer
Plagued by financial problems, ne'er-do-well Guido ends up in jail after faking an armed robbery at his workplace. A year later, just a few days befor...

Welcome to Collinwood
2002
Original Film Writer
Five hapless inner-city low-lifes attempt to burgle a pawnbroker's safe, but end up being plagued by bad luck.
The Spring of 2002 - Italy Protests, Italy Stops
2002
Director

Dirty Linen
1999
Director, Story, Screenplay
The Razzi family owns a small factory of sweets in Macerata. Their desire to enlarge their business to cope with the new Unified European Market bring...

The Man with the Cigar in His Mouth
1997
as Self

The Cyclone
1996
as Gino (voice)
The everyday life of accountant Levante, his family and the other people of a small town in the Tuscan countryside is taken by storm by the serendipit...

Esercizi di stile
1996
Director, Screenplay
The end of a love story, told in fourteen different styles: from comedy to western, from noir to thriller, silent movie and so on.

Looking for Paradise
1995
Director, Screenplay
The life and times of Claudia Bertelli, born in Milan in 1949 from bourgeois parents, educated in England, rebel and single mother, then feminist and ...

La vera vita di Antonio H.
1994
as Self
This film depicts a series of landmark events in the life of hapless thespian Antonio Hutter (Alessandro Haber), the unfortunate fictional alter-ego o...

A Magic Friend: The Maestro Nino Rota
1994
as Self
The artistic evolution of the great composer, whose work left an indelible mark in the history of Italian cinema. In this documentary Nino Rota's extr...

A Magic Friend: The Maestro Nino Rota
1994
Writer, Director
The artistic evolution of the great composer, whose work left an indelible mark in the history of Italian cinema. In this documentary Nino Rota's extr...

Dear Goddamned Friends
1994
Director, Screenplay
In 1944 Tuscany, a group of boxers struggling through World War II stages rigged matches to earn money and travel, accompanied by a missing black Amer...

Dearest Relatives, Poisonous Relations
1992
Director, Screenplay
During the annual Christmas gathering at the family home, the parents surprise their children by announcing their decision to move in with one of them...

Rossini! Rossini!
1991
Director, Screenplay, Story
An funny, witty and bright biopic by the master of italian comedy Mario Monicelli about the famed italian composer Gioacchino Rossini, here portrayed ...

Dark Illness
1990
Director
After his father's death, a middle-aged screenwriter struggles with his obsessions and neuroses.

12 Directors for 12 Cities
1989
Director
Promotional omnibus film, made for the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, featuring portraits of 12 Italian cities.

La moglie ingenua e il marito malato
1989
Director
A thief caught red-handed tells the landlord a very strange fact that happened to him looking through the keyhole of another apartment where he was st...

I picari
1987
Director, Screenplay, Story
The adventures of a couple of scoundrels in the Spain of the 16th century.

Let's Hope It's a Girl
1986
Director, Screenplay
Let's Hope It's a Girl is a multifaceted exploration of the pointlessness of sexual stereotypes. Liv Ullmann is a countess who, after her divorce, tak...

Big Deal on Madonna Street 20 Years Later
1985
Executive Producer
Fresh out prison, Tiberio reconnects with his old partners in crime, Michele Ferribote and Peppe the Panther, only to realise that a lot has changed--...

The 2 Lives of Mattia Pascal
1985
Director, Screenplay, Story
Based on 'Il fu Mattia Pascal', one of Pirandello's many stories concerning the transitory nature of the intangibles "truth" and "identity". Mattia Pa...

Bertoldo, Bertoldino, and Cacasenno
1984
Director, Screenplay, Story
During the reign of King Alboin, the peasant Bertoldo, sly and smart, manages to always get away with pranks and pleasantires with great mastery, and,...

My Friends Act II
1982
Director, Story, Screenplay
The four old friends meet on the grave of the fifth of them, Perozzi, who died at the end of the first episode. Time has passed but they are still up ...

The Marquis of Grillo
1981
Director, Screenplay, Story
In 18th-century Rome, impish aristocrat Onofrio del Grillo amuses himself by playing pranks on all sorts of people — his reactionary family and fellow...

Hotel Room
1981
Screenplay, Director, Story
A couple of young movie makers have secretly filmed for over a year what was going on in a hotel room, trying to realize a "live act" of common people...

I'm Photogenic
1980
as Mario Monicelli (uncredited)
Antonio Barozzi moves from Lago Maggiore to Rome to become an actor. He does not realize his agent and acting coach are only manipulating him to furth...

Hurricane Rosie
1980
Director, Story, Screenplay
Raoul has best chances to become next boxing champion in light-heavy weight. For a bet he tries to beat through a door with his bare fist. He wins the...
Rue du Pied de Grue
1979
as Touchatout
A drifter navigates the fringes of Parisian society. The protagonist, a solitary man seeking direction, becomes entangled with a group of outsiders—mi...

Lovers and Liars
1979
Director, Screenplay
An American actress on vacation in Italy falls for her friend's married Italian lover.

The New Monsters
1977
Director
A 1977 Italian comedy film composed of 14 episodes, directed by Dino Risi, Ettore Scola and Mario Monicelli. It is a sequel to I mostri, made in 1963.

An Average Little Man
1977
Director, Screenplay
A middle-aged government accountant is determined to secure a stable job for his son before retiring, willing to go to great lengths to achieve his go...

Goodnight, Ladies and Gentlemen
1976
Director, Story
An episodic satire of the political and social status of Italy in the seventies, through the shows of one day of a television channel.

Dear Michele
1976
Director
Michael is the younger son of a middle-class family, a strong-willed and free-thinking fellow, who is off in some distant country fighting for a revol...

My Friends
1975
Director
Four inseparable friends try to face their midlife crisis with daytrips and pranks at the expense of their families and the people around them.

Come Home and Meet My Wife
1974
Screenplay, Director, Story
50 year old Giulio and his 17 year old goddaughter, Vincenzina, fall madly in love with each other and soon are wed. Unfortunately for Giulio he walks...

We Want the Colonels
1973
Director, Screenplay, Story
Italy 1973. Giuseppe Tritoni (Ugo Tognazzi) is an ultra-right-wing congressman that doesn't agree anymore with his fascist party policy. He contacts m...

Lady Liberty
1971
Screenplay, Director, Dialogue
An Italian woman faces challenges at JFK Airport when Customs confiscates the mortadella sausage she brought as a gift for her fiancé, leading to a hu...

Brancaleone at the Crusades
1970
Director, Story, Screenplay
After saving an infant of royal blood, knight Brancaleone forms a new army and sets out to return the baby to his father: a prince fighting in the Cru...

The Couples
1970
Director
Three episodes. Episode 1 - The Refrigerator (Monicelli). A married couple of two poor emigrant workers spend almost all their money to buy a refriger...

Oh, Grandmother's Dead
1969
Screenplay, Director
Relatives brawl over the estate of a deceased grandmother who owned an insecticide factory.They stop at nothing, including bumping each other off.

The Girl with a Pistol
1968
Director
A Sicilian woman is dishonored by her lover, then goes to London with a pistol intending to murder him.

Caprice Italian Style
1968
Director
The film consists of six short stories created by different directors, but all the stories share one thing: a warm irony to current events.

Our Husbands
1966
Screenplay, Story
Three episodes about Italian husbands and their relationships.

The Queens
1966
Director
Four comedic shorts explore quirky relationships and misadventures: a teenage girl's journey home, a self-serving babysitter, a husband confronting in...

For Love and Gold
1966
Screenplay, Director, Story
A group of rogues steal a scroll granting its bearer the property of the land of Aurocastro in Apulia, a province in the south of Italy. They elect a ...

Casanova '70
1965
Screenplay, Director, Story
The amorous adventures of Andrea Rossi-Colombotti, an army officer who finds pleasure with beautiful women in life-threatening situations.

Summer Frenzy
1964
Screenplay

High Infidelity
1964
Director
Four different directors present lighthearted stories about married Italian couples and their dilemmas with jealousy, sex and love.

The Organizer
1963
Director, Screenplay, Story
In the late 19th century, a former high school teacher turned unionist tries to organize workers laboring with inhuman conditions at a textile factory...

Boccaccio '70
1962
Director, Screenplay
An anthology of four comic moral tales about the hypocrisies surrounding sex in 1960s Italy: frothy young love and office politics in the big city; mi...

On the Tiger's Back
1961
Screenplay, Story
Giacinto Rossi, a poor driver up to his neck in debt, is imprisoned for simulated crime. He finds himself in a cell with Tagliabue, an unscrupulous mu...

The Passionate Thief
1960
Story, Screenplay, Director
On New Year's Eve, a young woman and an out-of-work actor complicate a pickpocket's plans to ply his trade.

The Great War
1959
Director, Screenplay, Story
Italy, 1916. Oreste Jacovacci and Giovanni Busacca are called, as all the Italian youths, to serve the army in the WWI. They both try in every way to ...

Angel in a Taxi
1958
Screenplay
Marietto is a very lively and creative orphaned child, housed in a boarding school of nuns. One day, while browsing a newspaper, he sees a photo of a ...

Big Deal on Madonna Street
1958
Director, Screenplay
Best friends Peppe and Mario are thieves, but they're not very good at it. Still, Peppe thinks that he's finally devised a master heist that will make...

Doctor and the Healer
1957
Director, Co-Writer
Francesco, a young doctor, is appointed doctor to the imaginary village of Pianetta in the province of Avellino, but is immediately in competition wit...

Fathers and Sons
1957
Story, Screenplay, Director
The adventures of a young couple of high school students: her father is not opposed to their love, but the other, a doctor of prestige, is not at all ...

Donatella
1956
Screenplay, Director
Donatella is a simple and honest roman girl, daughter of a bookbinder and girlfriend of Guido, a gas station owner. One day she finds a woman's handba...

Beautiful But Dangerous
1955
Screenplay
Lina, a music hall singer, has fallen in love with Sergei, a Russian prince. Maestro Doria, who gives her voice lessons and who hopes to make her his ...

Forbidden
1955
Director, Screenplay
Don Paolo, a young parson troubled by his love for Agnese, tries to make peace in a little village in Sardinia where two families are at war.

A Hero of Our Times
1955
Director, Screenplay
Alberto Menichetti lives with an aunt and an old housekeeper, Clotilde; he has a job in a firm and his boss is Mrs. De Ritis, a widow whose husband wa...

Toto and Carolina
1955
Director, Screenplay
During a police raid at Villa Borghese, the agent, a widower named Antonio Caccavallo, stays to get better acquainted with the young Carolina.

Guai ai vinti
1954
Screenplay
A young woman, her sister-in-law and her ten year old daughter are violently traumatised by invading Austrian soldiers. Later, in Verona, both woman d...

Violenza sul lago
1954
Screenplay

Fatal Desire
1954
Writer
In Pietro Mascagni's tragic opera, a soldier returns home from war to reclaim his former fiancée, only to find that she's married someone else in his ...

Giuseppe Verdi
1953
Screenplay
The life and loves of great composer Giuseppe Verdi are played against a background of the great operas of the 19th Century. A tender love story of hi...

Funniest Show on Earth
1953
Screenplay, Story
A clown named Tottons of the Togni circus, obliged to never take off his clown makeup or reveal his identity, is continually persecuted by the jealous...

Neapolitan Turk
1953
Screenplay, Adaptation
Naples/Sorrento, mid 20s. A couple of small thieves conceive a scam whereby one of them dresses up as a eunuch Turk to care for the women of the famil...

Perdonami!
1953
Screenplay
The story of a woman who marries the brother of a guardian who was killed by her brother.

The Unfaithfuls
1953
Director, Screenplay
A group of "respectable" people are all partly responsible for the suicide of a servant girl. They are pounced upon by a wily blackmailer, who knows t...

Toto and the Women
1952
Director, Screenplay
Antonio Scaparro (Toto) is obsessed for women. He invents his own way to hide from them - in the attic of his house.

Toto and the Kings of Rome
1952
Director, Screenplay
An aging, down-and-out public employee must face the primary school examination.

The Lucky Five
1952
Screenplay
Four poor fellows win a luxurious car in a lottery but they have not the money to keep it. Therefore they decide to have it a day each and sell it aft...

Dogs and Cats
1952
Screenplay
In a village, the pharmacist and the innkeeper have an intense rivalry fuelled by the fact that they were once romantically involved many years before...

Totó in color
1952
Screenplay
In the first Italian film to be shot in color, Totò portrays a musician named Antonio Scannagatti who strongly hopes to sell his composition, "Epopea ...

Vendetta... sarda
1952
Story, Screenplay
A cook from Sardinia who had emigrated to Milan goes back to his native island thinking he has inherited some money with his uncles death. He finds ou...

Appointment for Murder
1952
Story, Screenplay
A woman has jumped or been pushed from five stories of an apartment house. The detective on the case lives there, and he discovers that the woman's es...

Tizio, Caio, Sempronio
1951
Story, Screenplay
A satirical story set during the early years of the Roman Empire.

Cops and Robbers
1951
Director, Screenplay
Esposito is a thief who cons tourists in Rome. Officer Bottoni manages to catch him and starts persecuting him. When Esposito manages to flee, Bottoni...

O.K. Nero
1951
Story, Screenplay
Two American sailors, Fiorello and Jimmy are slugged while sight-seeing in Rome and, together, they dream they are back in Rome in the days of Nero.

Damn the Taxes!!
1951
Writer, Screenplay
Count Borraccilo lives in luxury but does not pay taxes and for this he is targeted by the tax agent Gaetano Pellecchia, who asks his friend Mario for...

È l'amor che mi rovina
1951
Screenplay
A naive clerk finds himself involved in the theft of a ring containing a dangerous liquid.

Napoleone
1951
Screenplay, Story
A historical farce about Napoleon.

Double Cross
1951
Screenplay, Story
A businessman is wrongly accused and convicted for the murder of his associate.

The Knight is Here
1950
Director, Screenplay
A strange vagrant makes repeated attempts to rescue land inhabited by hawkers from being taken over by building development and a subway installation.

Outlaw Girl
1950
Story
Beppe Musolino is falsely accused of murder. He is tried and once found guilty is imprisoned. Unexpectedly he escape from prison and to survive he sta...

Soho Conspiracy
1950
Original Story
The plans of a publicity agent to put on a charity concert are nearly wrecked by a lawyer who wants to take over a restaurant, but the situation is sa...

A Dog’s Life
1950
Director, Story, Screenplay
Tragicomedy telling of the trials and tribulations of a troupe of variety show artists.

L'inafferrabile 12
1950
Screenplay
Two twin brothers grew up and never met (due to the fact that the father with the couple would have had 13 children and therefore for superstition he ...

Her Favourite Husband
1950
Screenplay
While casing a bank he intends to rob, gangster Leo discovers one of the clerks, Antonio, is his exact double. He kidnaps Antonio and robs the bank, p...

I'm in the Revue
1950
Writer
Good-natured and devout, a French house painter takes the train to Rome, where he has decided to go on a pilgrimage. There he meets a scatterbrained d...

Lure of the Sila
1949
Screenplay, Story
Returning home after a night of love spent in a woodman's hut with Orsola, Pietro is arrested by the police for a crime he did not commit. His mother ...

Totò Looking for a House
1949
Director, Story, Screenplay
Beniamino and his family have lived inside a school since the end of the war. After five years they have to move, but in Rome it's not easy to find an...

Fame and the Devil
1949
Screenplay, Director
Three men consider selling their souls to Satan in order to possess a beautiful woman.

The Iron Swordsman
1949
Writer

In the Name of the Law
1949
Screenplay
A young, by-the-book judge is appointed to a Sicilian village controlled by corrupt leaders and the mafia.

Come scopersi l'America
1949
Writer

The Mysterious Rider
1948
Screenplay, Story
Giacomo Casanova returns to Venice, to help his brother, falsely accused of robbery.

L'eroe della strada
1948
Story, Screenplay
Felice Manetti is a poor tramp in Turin who, due to his ingenuity, often finds himself in trouble.

Mad About Opera
1948
Story

Lost Youth
1948
Screenplay
In impoverished post-war Rome, a gang of young thieves is lead by Stefano, the son of an illustrious professor. The police suspects that the criminals...

Les Misérables - Storm Over Paris
1948
Screenplay
The story of Jean Valjean, still pursued by Javert, continues with a love developing between Cosette and radical student Marius, a blackmailing attemp...

Les Misérables
1948
Screenplay
In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both me...

How I Lost the War
1947
Screenplay
Leo Bianchetti has just finished his military service but then is again called to arms; after 10 years on various fronts, he finds himself again in It...

The Captain's Daughter
1947
Screenplay
A peasant leader under the enlightened despotism of Empress Catherine the Great, and a love story.

Fumeria d’oppio
1947
Screenplay
A young woman is murdered and robbed in broad daylight. A young man is arrested, in possession of some of the jewels of the victim. The passionate pro...

Furia
1947
Assistant Director
Melodrama of sexual cravings: The bored wife of a horse breeder is the object of attention by both a stud keeper and a half idiot stable hand.The youn...

Lo sciopero dei milioni
1947
Writer

Aquila Nera
1946
Screenplay
An evil Czarist landowner had mistreated the father and friends of an officer.The officer wreaks vengeance by committing masked coach robberies and in...

The Testimony
1946
First Assistant Director
A man, standing trial for robbery with murder, faces the death penalty. The testimony of an old civil servant may give him a reprieve but not peace of...

Fear No Evil
1945
Story, Screenplay
The life of Saint Benedict, the founder of Western Monasticism.

La donna è mobile
1942
Screenplay

Thrill
1941
First Assistant Director, Screenplay, Dialogue
A crime novel writer is experiencing writer's block while writing his latest book. Then a woman is murdered in his home, and this crime gives him insp...

Ballerine
1937
Second Assistant Director
A favorite student of an old dance teacher gets casted in an important pantomime. When the teacher dies on the stage, she finds support from a journal...

I ragazzi della via Paal
1935
Director
The Tell-Tale Heart
1934
First Assistant Director, Adaptation, Screenplay
A madman is so obsessed by the protruding eye of the old man with whom he lives that he plots to murder him.