Monica Vitti
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| Monica Vitti | |
 Actress Monica Vitti in Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura (1960 |
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| Born | November 3, 1931 |
Monica Vitti (born Maria Luisa Ceciarelli, 3 November 1931, Rome) is an Italian actress noted for her frosty expressiveness and starring roles in films by Michelangelo Antonioni.
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[edit] Training and early career
While a teenager she acted in amateur productions, then trained as an actor at Rome's National Academy of Dramatic Arts and at Pitman's, where she played a teen in a charity performance of Niccodemi's La Nemica. She toured Germany with an Italian acting troupe and her first stage appearance in Rome was for a production of Machiavelli's La Mandragora. Vitti's first film role was in Ettore Scola's Ridere Ridere Ridere (1954). In 1957 she joined Michelangelo Antonioni's Teatro Nuovo di Milano, later playing a leading role in his award winning, existentialist landmark film L'avventura (1960) as a detached and cool protagonist drifting into a relationship with her best friend's lover. With a screen presence that has been described as "stunning", Vitti is also credited with helping Antonioni raise money for the production and sticking with him through its difficult location shooting. She later received critical praise for starring roles in other Antonioni films including La notte, L'eclisse, and Il deserto rosso. Her only Hollywood effort was Modesty Blaise, a mod James Bond spoof with Terence Stamp (1966) which was a critical and commercial disappointment and included a rather infamous musical number; Vitti played the title character.
[edit] Later career
Vitti's later movie appearances have mostly been in Italian films without international distribution. Notable exceptions include Luis Buñuel's Fantôme de la liberté (1974). In 1980 she was reunited with Antonioni after 15 years in his The Mystery of Oberwald. In 1989 she wrote, directed and starred in Scandalo Segreto. Her image later appeared on an Italian postage stamp commemorating L'avventura. In 1993 Vitti was awarded the Festival Tribute at the Créteil International Women's Film Festival in France. She married Roberto Russo in 1995.
[edit] Filmography
The original titles are given. A few roles are uncredited bit parts or voice overs.
- Ridere! Ridere! Ridere! (1954)
- Una Pelliccia di visone (1954)
- Adriana Lecouvreur (1955)
- Le Dritte (1958)
- L'Avventura (1960)
- La Notte (1961)
- Accattone (1961)
- L'Eclisse (1962)
- Les Quatre vérités (1962)
- Château en Suède (1963)
- Follie d'estate (1963)
- Dragées au poivre (1963)
- Alta infedeltà (1964)
- Il Deserto rosso (1964)
- Il Disco volante (1964)
- Le Bambole (1965)
- Le Fate (1966)
- Modesty Blaise (1966)
- Ti ho sposato per allegria (1967)
- Fai in fretta ad uccidermi... ho freddo! (1967)
- La Ragazza con la pistola (1968)
- La Femme écarlate (1968)
- La Cintura di castità (1968)
- Amore mio aiutami (1969)
- Ninì Tirabusciò: la donna che inventò la mossa (1970)
- Dramma della gelosia - tutti i particolari in cronaca (1970)
- Le Coppie (1970)
- La Pacifista (1970)
- La Supertestimone (1971)
- Noi donne siamo fatte così (1971)
- Teresa la ladra (1972)
- Gli Ordini sono ordini (1972)
- La Tosca (1973)
- Polvere di stelle (1973)
- Le Fantôme de la liberté (1974)
- L'Anatra all'arancia (1975)
- A mezzanotte va la ronda del piacere (1975)
- Qui comincia l'avventura (1975)
- Basta che non si sappia in giro! (1976)
- Mimì Bluette ... fiore del mio giardino (1977)
- L'Altra metà del cielo (1977)
- Per vivere meglio, divertitevi con noi (1978)
- La Raison d'état (1978)
- Letti selvaggi (1979)
- Amori miei (1979)
- An Almost Perfect Affair (1979)
- Il Tango della gelosia (1980)
- Non ti conosco più amore (1980)
- Camera d'albergo (1981)
- Il Mistero di Oberwald (1981)
- Io so che tu sai che io so (1982)
- Scusa se è poco (1982)
- Flirt (1983)
- Francesca è mia (1986)
- Scandalo segreto (1989)
[edit] Television
- Ma tu mi vuoi bene? (1991 miniseries)
