Monica Vitti

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Monica Vitti (2008)

Monica Vitti (real name Maria Luisa Ceciarelli ; born November 3, 1931 in Rome , Lazio ; † February 2, 2022 in Rome ) was an Italian actress . She is particularly famous for her films with directors Michelangelo Antonioni and Mario Monicelli .

Life

Already as a teenager, Monica Vitti excelled in amateur productions on stage. After graduating from Rome's Accademia nazionale d'arte drammatica in 1953, she worked mainly for the theater, but had her film debut in 1954 with a small role in the comedy Ridere! ride! ride! At the end of the 1950s she met Michelangelo Antonioni , with whom she lived for several years. Under his direction, she celebrated successes on stage and acted in six films together between 1957 and 1981. Her breakthrough to stardom meant the leading role in Antonioni's existentialist film drama The Playing with Love (L'Avventura) in 1960 . Antonioni also used her in leading roles in his subsequent films La notte , L'eclisse and Il deserto rosso . All films deal in particular with modernity and its weaknesses, for example its effects on interpersonal relationships, and are counted among the classics of film history.

Monica Vitti, who radiated passion and aloofness at the same time and was convincing in dramatic roles, became one of the icons of Italian film . Although she had already shown great vis comica (funnyness) at the acting academy, she only became known to the general public as a gifted comedian in the 1960s, for example in Mario Monicelli 's La ragazza con la pistola (1968). In May of the same year, she was nominated as President of the 21st Cannes Film Festival , but when the student protests of 1968 also turned against the festival, she resigned, as did Louis Malle , Roman Polański and Terence Young . That's why no film prize was awarded in Cannes this year.

She continued to enjoy great success in the comedic genre, including with Theresa the Thief (Teresa la ladra) (1973), the directorial debut of her then-partner Carlo Di Palma , who had worked as Antonioni's chief cameraman. She played leading roles in films by important directors: Ettore Scola , Luis Buñuel , Dino Risi , Nanni Loy , Franco Rossi , Luigi Comencini and others.

In 1966, her attempt to gain a foothold in English-language film and thus internationally with the title role in Joseph Losey's parodic agent comedy Modesty Blaise - The Deadly Lady (based on the comics about Modesty Blaise by author Peter O'Donnell ) was a failure.

Between 1969 and 1979, Vitti was awarded the David di Donatello Italian Film Prize five times . In 1974, Monica Vitti was a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival . In 1984, she earned a Silver Bear at the 1984 Berlinale for her performance in the film Flirt . This film, which Monica Vitti also co-wrote, also marked the directorial debut of her partner Roberto Russo . The relationship began in 1973, after 27 years the two married in 2000.

In 1988, the French daily Le Monde reported her suicide. Monica Vitti sarcastically replied that she was thankful for the long life that (according to a common Italian superstition) had been bestowed upon her premature death. In 1989 she directed, wrote and starred in the film Scandalo segreto . After that, Monica Vitti retired from the screen, but continued to appear in television and theater roles. In 1993 she published a successful autobiography , Sette sottane . In 1995, Monica Vitti received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale .

In March 2002 she appeared in public for the last time. In the years that followed, her health deteriorated. She suffered from a degenerative disease, withdrew to a Swiss clinic and only had contact with her relatives. In 2018 her husband reported that she lives and is being cared for in Rome. On her 90th birthday, Claudius Seidl wrote about Vitti that she had "invented a new type of cinema heroine: modern, cool, far ahead of men".

She died on February 2, 2022 at the age of 90.

Filmography (selection)

Terence Stamp and Monica Vitti in Modesty Blaise (1965)
  • 1960: Those who play with love (L'avventura)
  • 1961: The Night (La notte)
  • 1962: Love 1962 (L'eclisse)
  • 1962: The Four Truths (Les quatre vérités)
  • 1963: Sweets with pepper (Dragées à poivre)
  • 1963: A Castle in Sweden (Château en Suède) – Directed by Roger Vadim
  • 1964: Marriages in Threes (Alta infedelta)
  • 1964: The Red Desert (Il deserto rosso)
  • 1965: The Dolls (Le bambole)
  • 1966: Modesty Blaise - The Deadly Lady (Modesty Blaise)
  • 1966: The Playmates (Le fate)
  • 1967: Make Me Cold, I'm Freezing (Fai in fretta ad uccidermi... ho freddo!) - Directed by Francesco Maselli
  • 1968: You don't catch men with pistols (La ragazza con la pistola)
  • 1968: The Chastity Belt (La cintura di castità) – Directed by Pasquale Festa Campanile
  • 1969: Amore mio (Amore mio aiutami)
  • 1969: Cold Eyes (La Femme écarlate) – Directed by Jean Valère
  • 1970: Jealousy in Italian (Dramma della gelosia (tutti i particolari in cronaca))
  • 1973 Theresa the Thief (Teresa la ladra) – Directed by Carlo Di Palma
  • 1974: The specter of freedom (Le fantôme de la liberté)
  • 1975: A Louse in a Fur (A mezzanotte va la ronda del piacere) – Directed by Marcello Fondato
  • 1975: Duck on Orange (L'anatra all'arancia) – Directed by Luciano Salce
  • 1975: Lucky Girls (Qui comincia l'avventura) – Directed by Carlo Di Palma
  • 1977 Help She Loves Me (L'altra metà del cielo) – Directed by Franco Rossi
  • 1978: Raison d'état (La Raison d'état) – Directed by André Cayatte
  • 1979: An Almost Perfect Affair
  • 1979: Wild Beds - Lipstick Tigresses (Letti selvaggi) - Directed by Luigi Zampa
  • 1981: The Secret of Oberwald (Il mistero di Oberwald) – Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
  • 1982: The Secrets of My Wife (Io so che tu sai che io so) – Directed by Alberto Sordi
  • 1982: Sorry, may I slap you? (Scusa se è poco)
  • 1983: Flirt
  • 1986: Francesca e mia
  • 1989: Scandalo segreto (Director)
  • 1992: Ma tu mi vuoi bene?

Books

awards

Handprint by Monica Vitti, Cannes

Nastro d'Argento

  • Best Supporting Actress 1962 in The Night
  • Best Actress 1969 in Guns Don't Catch Men, 1976 in Duck on Orange

David diDonatello

Best Actress: 1969 in Guns don't catch men, 1971 in Ninì Tirabusciò - La donna che inventò la mossa, 1974 in Polvere di stelle, 1976 in Duck on Orange, 1979 in Amori miei

Berlinale

  • 1984: Silver Bear

Order of Merit of the Italian Republic

  • 1986

Venice Biennale

web links

Commons : Monica Vitti  – Collection of images

itemizations

  1. ↑ Almanacco di Storia illustrata, 1968, p. 65 (yearbook published by Mondadori, Italian)
  2. ↑ Archivio AGI of May 3, 1988 [1]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ), retrieved on November 5, 2016.@1@2Template: dead link/archivio.agi.it
  3. ↑ Di Lei online, April 14, 2016 [2]
  4. ↑ La Repubblica, online edition of November 3, 2016 [3]
  5. ↑ Di Lei online, April 14, 2016 [4]
  6. ↑ La Repubblica online, video of November 3, 2016 [5]
  7. ↑ Il marito di Monica Vitti: «Basta fake news, non è in una clinica svizzera» Article in Corriere (Italian) ( Memento of July 13, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ The goddess of modernity. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung online. November 3, 2021, accessed February 2, 2022.
  9. ↑ Italian actress Monica Vitti dies at 90. In: The Standard. February 2, 2022, retrieved February 2, 2022 .
personal data
SURNAME Vitty, Monica
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ceciarelli, Maria Louisa (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian actress
BIRTH DATE November 3, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome , Lazio, Italy
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 2022
PLACE OF DEATH Rome , Lazio