“Farewell to Monica Vitti, farewell to the queen of Italian cinema. Today is a truly sad day, a great artist and a great Italian passes away”. This is how the Italian Minister of Culture, Dario Franceschini, announced this Wednesday the death of the Italian actress Monica Vitti, 90 years old. The actress rose to prominence in the 1960s, with her portrayals of tormented characters in the “tetralogy of incommunicability” : _”_L’Avventura” (1960), “La Nuit” (1961), “L’Éclipse” (1962), and “Le Désert Rouge” (1964), four films that brought filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni into the pantheon of world cinema.
“I was lucky to start my career with a man of great talent”, but also “spiritual, full of life and enthusiasm”recognized the actress in an interview with Italian television in 1982.
Muse of Antonioni
Born in Rome on November 3, 1931, Monica Vitti, who graduated from the National Academy of Dramatic Art in 1953, began her career in the theater, where her comedic talent, one of its trademarks. It is also in supporting roles in the cinema of comic vein that she will be spotted by Michelangelo Antonioni, with whom she quickly establishes an artistic and sentimental relationship. She successively embodies the tormented Claudia of “L’Avventura”, the tempting Valentina of _”La Nuit”, the mysterious Vittoria of “_L’Eclipse” and the neurotic Giuliana of “Red Desert”.
After her time with Antonioni, she became one of the protagonists of Italian comedy, where she stood up to her male counterparts, of the caliber of Alberto Sordi, Ugo Tognazzi, Vittorio Gassman or Nino Manfredi. She shines in particular in “The Girl with the Gun” (1968), a successful film by Mario Monicelli where she plays Assunta, a Sicilian who pursues the man who killed her all the way to Scotland. “disgraced”.
Antonioni’s companion from 1957 to 1967, she married director and cinematographer Roberto Russo in 1995, after 20 years together. In 2011, Roberto Russo announced that Monica Vitti was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for nearly 15 years. The actress has won numerous awards throughout her career, including five David di Donatello (Italian Caesars), a Golden Lion in Venice for Lifetime Achievement and a Silver Bear in Berlin.