Monica Vitti, the Italian actor best known for her collaborations with filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni in the 1960s, died on Wednesday. She was 90.
Italy’s former culture minister Walter Veltroni announced her demise on Twitter. “Roberto Russo, her partner of all these years, asks me to communicate that Monica Vitti is no longer there. I do it with pain, affection, regret,” he wrote.
Dario Franceschini, Italy’s current culture minister, described her as the “queen of Italian cinema” in a statement condoling her demise.
Vitti was born on November 3, 1931, as Maria Luisa Ceciarelli. She graduated from the National Academy of Dramatic Arts in Rome and began her career in the theatre taking on her mother’s maiden name for a stage name.
Her first film was one in which she appeared in an uncredited role – Ridere! Ridere! Ridere! (Laugh! Laugh! Laugh) in 1954. Vitti went on to play various small roles before she met Antonioni and starred in his trilogy L’Avventura (1960), La Notte (1961), and L’Eclisse (1962).
L’Avventura was her first film as a leading lady and it catapulted her to international recognition. The film was nominated for numerous awards, and was awarded the Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival.
As work on the film began, Antonioni and Vitti moved in together and remained in a relationship until 1967. Speaking about the celebrated Italian filmmaker, she had said, “What I’d learned in drama school wasn’t much use on the rocks of Lisca Bianca [the Sicilian island where L’Avventura was filmed], where we were shooting under such dramatic conditions. Michelangelo treats his actors as objects, and it is useless to ask him the meaning of a scene or a line of dialogue.”
In 1964, Vitti starred in another Antonioni film, Red Desert, with Richard Harris of Harry Potter fame.
A few films later, she made her English-language debut in 1966, with the film Modesty Blaise, based on Peter O’ Donnell’s comic strip. Her second English film, An Almost Perfect Affair, came only in 1979.
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Following the end of her relationship with Antonioni, Vitti appeared in a streak of comedy films, such as The Queens, Kill Me Quick, I’m Cold, I Married You For Fun, The Girl with a Pistol, and The Bitch Wants Blood, among others.
She became the only woman considered on par with the popular Italian male comic actors of the 70s, and commanded a salary at the same level too.
Vitti won several awards in Italy for her work in cinema and also won the Silver Bear for outstanding single achievement at the 34th Berlin International Film Festival for one of her last films, Flirt (1983).
In 2000, Vitti married Roberto Russo, her long-time partner and the director of Flirt, and is survived by him.