American Marconi Wireless News - Italian director Nanni Moretti in hospital after heart attack: media

The 71-year-old director, actor and screenwriter -- best known outside of Italy for 1993's "Caro Diario" (Dear Diary) and 2001's "The Son's Room" -- was transported to the hospital Wednesday afternoon after the cardiac emergency.

He underwent surgery and was in intensive care, local media reported.

Italian news agency Ansa reported that he was in stable condition.

Often compared to Woody Allen for his quirky, offbeat and autobiographical films in which he often appears as his alter-ego, the quiet, media-shy Moretti is one of Italian cinema's sharpest social commentators.

His film repertoire has included biting satire as well as gently handled stories of family crisis, such as "The Son's Room", about the effect on a family after a son's sudden death, which won Cannes' Palme d'Or in 2001.

Often mixing awkward humour with political critique, Moretti's incisive films have taken on such topics as former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in the 2006 satire "The Caiman" and the inner workings of the Holy See in "We Have a Pope".

After a string of films, beginning with his 1976 comedy shot on Super 8, "I am Self-Sufficient", Moretti found fame outside Italy with 1993 "Caro Diario", when he zoomed into the international public's consciousness atop his Vespa scooter.

That film, in which Moretti zigzags through a nearly deserted Rome while sharing offbeat interactions with those he meets along the way, won him a best director award at Cannes in 1994.

Moretti's most recent film, "A Brighter Tomorrow", about a film director -- played by Moretti -- competed in the Cannes Film Festival in 2023.

P.Stevenson--AMWN