Monica Vitti

Maria Luisa Ceciarelli (Rome, November 3, 1931-ib, February 2, 2022), better known as Monica Vitti, was an Italian actress, one of the most important actresses of the Italian comedy genre of the cinema of the 1970s. She also had dramatic roles and stood out particularly in the latter. She acted in a multitude of feature films, and also worked as a director (Scandalo secreto , 1989).

Biography

Her father was of Sicilian origin and her mother from Bologna. As a child she lived in Messina for eight years. At fourteen she made her theater debut playing a mother who loses her son in combat.

He graduated from the National Academy of Dramatic Art in 1953. In 1954 he made his film debut with Edoardo Anton in an episode of Ridere! ride! Ridere! and in 1955 she already with the artistic name of Monica Vitti, derived from the maternal surname Vittiglia with the advice of one of her teachers at the academy, Sergio Tofano, she was part of her company. After playing Brecht, Molière and Shakespeare, she developed her comic streak.

In 1956 he began his artistic career in the theater. In 1958 she worked again in the cinema with another minor role in Le dritte but forged already in comic roles in reality her cinematographic career begins with Michelangelo Antonioni and The Adventure (1960).

Personal life

Vitti in 1990.

Very little is known about her private life, which she always avoided airing even after publishing her autobiography Sette Sottane in 1993. She lived for years with Michelangelo Antonioni and was later linked to Carlo Di Palma with whom she worked in the mid-1970s. She later joined photographer and director Roberto Russo, whom she married in 2000 after twenty-seven years of dating. She was last seen in public in 2002. Suffering from Alzheimer's, she lived in Rome in the care of her relatives, and she passed away on February 2, 2022 from that disease.

Filmography

Awards and distinctions

Venice International Film Festival

San Sebastian International Film Festival

Further reading

• SANTOVENIA, Rodolfo: Monica's two faces. Supplement Orbe, fortnightly edited by Prensa Latina. Year 10, No. 229, 11-24 June 2011. Exclusive publication of The Day, section Culture, p. III.