Director Ettore Scola, one of the last greats of Italian film, has died aged 84.

RAI state radio and the ANSA news agency said Scola died late on Tuesday at a Rome hospital after falling ill on Sunday.

Scola, who started out as a screenwriter, won best director in 1976 at the Cannes Film Festival for Brutti, Sporchi, Cattivi (Ugly, Dirty and Bad).

But he was perhaps best known for We All Loved Each Other So Much, his 1977 film about post-war Italy, and the Oscar-nominated A Special Day featuring Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren as neighbours who meet during Hitler's visit to Italy in 1938.

Italian premier Matteo Renzi said Scola had an incomparable way of reading Italian society and that his death "leaves an enormous hole in Italian culture".

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