Italian actress Monica Vitti, best known for her roles in films by Michelangelo Antonioni, who also starred with French actor Alain Delon in the 1960s and won several international cinema awards, has died aged 90.
"Goodbye Monica Vitti, goodbye queen of Italian cinema. Today is a truly sad day, we have lost a great artist and a great Italian," Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said in a statement.
Monica Vitti shot to international fame with the 1960 drama L'Avventura ("The Adventure") in which she plays a tormented woman who dallies with the lover of her missing friend.
Vitti perfectly embodied the tormented characters of the "tetralogy of incommunicability": L'avventura (1960), La notte (1961), L'ecclisse (1962) - in which she starred with French actor Alain Delon - and Il deserto rosso (1964).
These four films brought Michelangelo Antonioni into the pantheon of world cinema, while at the same time gave the then 30-year-old actress international fame.
"An actress of great wit and extraordinary talent, she conquered generations of Italians with her spirit, her bravura, her beauty," Prime Minister Mario Draghi said in a statement.
The former Cannes Film Festival director, Gilles Jacob, also paid her a heartfelt tribute on Twitter: "Sublime, she played the neighbours with the class of a goddess and the queens with the simplicity of the neighbour."
Bardot a eu Vadim pr la lancer. Monica a eu Antonioni. Puis elle s’est abandonnée au luxe de la comédie à l’italienne avec Scola, Monicelli et les autres. Elle est devenue star mondiale en restant elle même, rieuse et simple. Passer la soirée avec elle c’était côtoyer le bonheur pic.twitter.com/UekoE1qsVt
— gilles jacob (@jajacobbi) February 2, 2022
Born in Rome on the 3d of November, 1931, Vitti -- whose real name was Maria Luisa Ceciarelli -- discovered her passion for the theatre during World War Two, when she entertained her family with puppets to relieve boredom.
"As the bombs fell, when we had to take refuge in the shelters, my little brother and I would improvise little plays to entertain those around us," she would recount years later.
After graduating from Rome's National Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1953, she began her career in the theatre, where she stood out for her comic talent.
She was spotted by Antonioni, with whom she quickly developed an artistic and sentimental relationship.
"I was lucky enough to start my career with a man of great talent", but who was also "spiritual, full of life and enthusiasm", Vitti said in an interview on Italian television in 1982.
After her time with Antonioni, she became one of the protagonists of the Italian comedy.
Working in dozens of films throughout the 60s and 70s, Vitti's output slowed the following decade.
In 1990, she moved behind the camera and starred in her own film Secret Scandal.
The actress has won numerous awards during her career, including five David di Donatello (Italian Oscar Awards), a Golden Lion in Venice for lifetime achievement and a Silver Bear in Berlin.
She had been suffering from Alzeimer's disease and had withdrawn from public life in recent years.
(with AFP)
