By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
The young drop coverage to avoid higher premiums
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.
Deftly mixing comedy with tragedy, director Mario Monicelli laid bare Italy's flaws and sins for a half-century on the screen.
Screenwriter Suso Cecchi D'Amico, who emerged from the male-dominated post-war Italian cinema to become a celebrated artist and contribute to such milestones as "Bicycle Thieves" and "The Leopard," died Saturday at age 96.
"A comedy that is ironic, sometimes bitter, in some cases even dramatic, tragic: This is what Italian comedy is," Monicelli once said.
"Perhaps he couldn't stand old age any more," he said in an interview published Tuesday.
