In a world of men Flaiano, Zavattini, Age and Scarpelli—there was a woman. The only one who could sit at the table of the great screenwriters not as a guest, but as an equal. Suso Cecchi D’Amico wrote the history of Italian cinema.

Giovanna Cecchi was born in Rome in 1914 into a family where art was the air one breathed: her father Emilio was one of the most influential literary critics of the twentieth century, her mother Leonetta Pieraccini a talented painter. The Cecchi home was a crossroads of intellectuals, artists, directors. Young Suso studied at the Lycée Chateaubriand, perfected her English at Cambridge, translated Thomas Hardy under her father’s wing. She married the musicologist Fedele D’Amico, entering another dynasty of Italian culture.

Her film debut came in 1946 with Renato Castellani’s “Mio figlio professore.” Two years later, with Cesare Zavattini, she wrote “Bicycle Thieves” it was she who proposed the ending with the attempted bicycle theft, one of the most celebrated scenes in cinema history. Then “The Walls of Malapaga,” Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film.

But the partnership that marked an era was the one with Luchino Visconti. From “Bellissima” onward, Suso signed all his masterpieces: “Senso,” “White Nights,” “Rocco and His Brothers,” “The Leopard,” “Ludwig,” “Conversation Piece,” “The Innocent.” With Antonioni she wrote “Le amiche,” Silver Lion at Venice. With Monicelli she created “Big Deal on Madonna Street,” a milestone of Italian comedy. With Francesco Rosi she signed “Salvatore Giuliano.”

Over one hundred screenplays. Twelve Nastri d’Argento. Four David di Donatello Awards. The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at Venice in 1994. A woman who crossed half a century of cinema always remaining at the center, capable of moving from drama to comedy, from literature to current events, with boundless culture and an infallible ear for dialogue.

In this documentary, Donatella Baglivo gathers the testimony of an absolute protagonist of the Italian twentieth century.