Franco Brusati; Writer, Award-Winning Film Director

Franco Brusati, 66, Italian writer and director of such films as “Bread and Chocolate” and “To Forget Venice.” The first film, released in the United States in 1978, won the Golden Bear award of the Berlin Film Festival and a New York film critics award. “To Forget Venice,” about two gay couples, one male and one female, won an Academy Award nomination and the Oscar’s Italian equivalent. Brusati, who wrote for the stage as well as the screen, also made the films “Tenderly,” “The Good Soldier,” “The Tulips of Haarlem” and “The Sleazy Uncle.” He won the Italian Dramatic Institute’s comedy award five times. On Sunday in Rome of leukemia.