FILE - Italian actress Monica Vitti arrives at the Festival Palace to see director Michelangelo Antonioni's film "Identificazione di una Donna" (Identification of a Woman), the Italian entry at the 35 annual Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 23, 1982. (AP Photo/Jean Jacques Levy, File)
ROME — Monica Vitti, the versatile movie star of Michelangelo Antonioni’s “L’Avventura” and other Italian alienation films of the 1960s, and later a leading comic actress, has died. She was 90.
Her death was announced Wednesday on Twitter by a former culture minister, Walter Veltroni, who said he had been asked to communicate her death by her husband, the photographer Roberto Russo.
“Goodbye to the queen of Italian cinema,” the current culture minister, Dario Franceschini, wrote in a statement.
Vitti had been out of the public spotlight for years, living quietly in Rome with her husband. She reportedly suffered from a form of dementia.
In her glamour days in the 1960s, she was best known for her starring roles in “L’Avventura,” “La Notte,” “Eclisse” (“Eclipse”) and “Red Desert,” all films directed by Antonioni, her lover at that time. The two were constant targets of paparazzi.
FILE – Monica Vitti poses for a portrait at the Venice Film Festival, where she is seen in 1964. (AP Photo, File)
“L’Avventura” won her international attention and praise for her role as an icy cool woman drifting into a relationship with the lover of her missing girlfriend. In “Red Desert,” the last of the cycle, she plays a woman suffering from a deep, elusive neurosis as she struggled to deal with a transformed industrial world.
Vitti’s blond hair and blue eyes set her apart from classic Mediterranean screen stars such as the brown-haired Sophia Loren.
Antonioni himself paid tribute to her performance at a special screening in New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1999 to mark completion of a restoration project for Italian film.
“The protagonist, Giuliana, goes through a profound personal crisis because of her inability to adapt,” he said, in remarks read by his wife, Enrica.
After Vitti’s relationship with Antonioni ended, they didn’t work together again until 1980. At that point, she changed focus sharply and began making comedies, working with top directors and some of Italy’s leading actors, including Alberto Sordi, a tragi-comic one, in films whose characters often personified Italians’ strengths and foibles.
While many of the films didn’t gain international distribution or acclaim, her performances were greeted with success at home.
In 1970, Vitti starred with Marcello Mastroianni in Ettore Scola’s romantic comedy “Dramma della gelosia” (“The Pizza Triangle”). In 1974, she won the equivalent of an Italian Oscar, a David di Donatello award, for best actress in Sordi’s “Polvere di Stelle,” one of five such prizes in her career.
She starred in Luis Bunuel’s “Le Fantome de la liberte” (“The Phantom of Liberty”) in 1974, a surrealistic treatment of middle-class hypocrisies, considered her last major film.
FILE – Leading figures of Italian cinema Monica Vitti and Alberto Sordi show the “Golden Lions” career awards during the awarding ceremony at the Venice Film Festival in this Sept. 9, 1995, file photo. (Ap Photo/Luigi Costantini, File)
Her versatility distinguished her from other actresses of her period.
In a memorable scene in “Amore mio aiutami” (“Help me, my love”), she and Sordi roll in the sand trading slaps and punches. In one of her only two English-language films, she found herself in a spy spoof with Terence Stamp and Dirk Bogarde in the 1966 “Modesty Blaise.”
Vitti was born as Maria Luisa Ceciarelli in Rome in 1931. As a teenager, she appeared in amateur stage productions, then studied as an actor in Rome’s National Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her first film role was in Scola’s “Ridere Ridere Ridere” (“Laugh Laugh Laugh”) in 1954. Her last was “Scandalo Segreto” in 1989, which she wrote, directed and starred in.
Her reclusive life led to much speculation about the state of her health. In 1988, Le Monde reported she died from an overdose of barbiturates. She was very popular in France and her fans were outraged.
Here last public appearance was in 2002 for the premiere of “Notre Dame de Paris.”
In 1995, the Venice Film Festival awarded her a Golden Lion award for career achievement.
Italian Premier Mario Draghi remembered Vitti as “an actress of great irony and extraordinary talent, who won over generations of Italians with her spirit, bravura and beauty. She brought prestige to the Italian cinema around the globe.”
THESSALONIKI – Video Art Miden collaborates with ToPikap in Thessaloniki, presenting the video art program ‘Frozen’, curated by Gioula and Olga Papadopoulou, on Saturday, February 4.
FALMOUTH, MA – The police in Falmouth have identified the victim in an accident involving a car plunging into the ocean on February 20, NBC10 Boston reported.
SAN FRANCISCO – The opening of Uproot, the Greek Chamber Music Project (GCMP) concert tour marking the centennial of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, takes place on Friday, February 3, 8 PM, at Old First Concert, 1751 Sacramento Street in San Francisco, and live-streamed online.
MILAN — Italy's government has increased security around its diplomatic missions around the globe in response to “a crescendo of terroristic attacks” by an anarchist network that has been acting in solidarity with an imprisoned Italian militant, the foreign minister said Tuesday.
To purchase a gift subscription, please log out of your account, and purchase the subscription with a new email ID.
On April 2, 2021, we celebrated The National Herald’s 106th Anniversary. Help us maintain our independent journalism and continue serving Hellenism worldwide.
In order to deliver a more personalized, responsive, and improved experience, we use cookies to remember information about how you use this site. By Continuing to access the website, you agree that we will store data in a cookie as outlined in our Privacy Policy.
We use cookies on our site to personalize your experience, bring you the most relevant content, show you the most useful ads, and to help report any issues with our site. You can update your preferences at any time by visiting preferences. By selecting Accept, you consent to our use of cookies. To learn more about how your data is used, visit our cookie policy.
You’re reading 1 of 3 free articles this month. Get unlimited access to The National Herald. or Log In
You’ve reached your limit of free articles for this month. Get unlimited access to the best in independent Greek journalism starting as low as $1/week.