Monica Vitti is dead.
Walter Veltroni writes it on twitter.
'' Roberto Russo, his partner of recent years, asks me to communicate that Monica Vitti is no longer there.
I do it with great pain, affection, regret ''.
She was born Maria Luisa Ceciarelli in Rome, on November 3, 1931, she had turned 90 years old a few months ago.
She is an iconic actress of Italian cinema, she was absent from the scene since 2001, when she was received at the Quirinale for the David di Donatello.
She is the muse of Michelangelo Antonioni, queen of Italian comedy alongside Alberto Sordi.
In Sanremo long applause from the press room at the news of his death.
Roberto Russo, his partner of all these years, asks me to communicate that Monica Vitti is no longer there.
I do it with pain, affection, regret.
- walter veltroni (@VeltroniWalter) February 2, 2022
Condolences from Italian culture and cinema.
"Farewell to Monica Vitti, farewell to the queen of Italian cinema. Today is a really sad day, a great artist and a great Italian disappear".
Thus the Minister of Culture,
Dario Franceschini.
The Prime Minister, Mario Draghi,
expresses deep condolences for the death of Monica Vitti.
She is an actress of great irony and extraordinary talent, she has conquered generations of Italians with her spirit, her skill, her beauty.
You have brought prestige to Italian cinema around the world.
To her husband Roberto Russo and to all her loved ones, the condolences of the Government.
The memory of
Sofia Loren.
: I'm sorry, very sad, Vitti was a great actress ". So" The last time I saw her?
Too long ago, she was at Mastroianni's funeral "
Monica Vitti was one of those actresses who make Italian cinema immortal in the world.
She, Monica the unforgettable, an icon that goes beyond time, and who in the last twenty years has been hidden by illness, in oblivion.
For her, cinema has always been an elixir of life and even today it gives her an eternal present.
We know that the truth is much more painful, a form of Alzheimer's that isolated her from the world and that her husband Roberto Russo - who today entrusts the news of his death to Walter Veltroni on twitter - has defended with great rigor and I respect fighting against the "rumors" and false news that populated the net at regular intervals.
We know that her death took place in Rome, and also that her last public appearance was 19 years ago (at the premiere of Notre Dame de Paris) and that already
in previous years her participation in official events had rarefied after a retirement from the scene that dates back to 2001, when she was received at the Quirinale for the David di Donatello.
Born Maria Luisa Ceciarelli in Rome, November 3, 1931, raised in Sicily before the war due to her father's job (trade inspector), in love with acting since adolescence (when she staged home shows to distract her brothers from horrors of bombs in the last years of the war), he graduated in 1953 from the Academy of Dramatic Art under the guidance of Silvio d'Amico and with an exceptional teacher-companion like Sergio Tofano.
There are already all the signs of her flexibility as her interpreter: the first of her pushes her onto the stage to face great dramatic roles (Shakespeare,
Molie 're, Nicodemi's "The enemy" with which she conquers the audience), the latter leads her to unleash her histrionic verve in the successful series of comedies inspired by the character of Mr. Bonaventura, then a very popular comic book hero.
In the meantime, she has given herself a stage name with which to replace the nickname of "Setti Vistini" with which friends and family called her for her ability to change quickly like a Fregoli character.
RED DESERT
She chooses a surname that reminds her of her beloved mother (Adele Vittiglia) and a name that "sounds good" to her and is not yet in fashion.
She made her cinema debut in '55 with a small role in Guido Salvini's Adriana Lecouvreur alongside sacred monsters such as Valentina Cortese, Gabriele Ferzetti and Memo Benassi, but 5 years later she embodied herself in Antonioni's silent muse for the first of four films. they go under the sign of "incommunicability": The adventure.
In the following four years she will become an international diva thanks to unforgettable titles such as La notte, L'eclisse, Deserto rosso, but the meeting with Antonioni dates back to 1957 when she voices Dorian Gray in Il scido.
All the great international directors also want it because
in addition to a beautiful and mysterious face, she sports a hoarse and mellow voice that (just like Claudia Cardinale in the same years) affirms a difference from the traditional school of diction. Yet the hood of the mysterious and icy woman is not for her, just like the image of a distant and unknowable star.
In the same 60s she has tried her hand several times with TV and has had a special recognition with the participation in the tormented jury of the 1968 Cannes festival when she resigns from her role in solidarity with the protesters of the Nouvelle Vague .
image of a distant and unknowable star.
In the same 60s she has tried her hand several times with TV and has had a special recognition with the participation in the tormented jury of the 1968 Cannes festival when she resigns from her role in solidarity with the protesters of the Nouvelle Vague .
image of a distant and unknowable star.
In the same 60s she has tried her hand several times with TV and has had a special recognition with the participation in the tormented jury of the 1968 Cannes festival when she resigns from her role in solidarity with the protesters of the Nouvelle Vague .
It is at this moment that she decides to give a cut to her more consolidated image and embraces the idea of comedy thanks to Mario Monicelli who wants her to be the protagonist of The girl with the gun.
Success is popular, immediate, contagious.
In the middle of '68, the emancipation of the shy Sicilian Assunta Patane 'who chases the man who dishonored her (Carlo Giuffre') to England to then understand that one can be free and honored even without going through the crime of honor, makes noise and the director draws from Vitti a bright and unexpected talent that will soon allow her to fight on an equal footing with the colonels of the Italian comedy.
The only winning woman with their own weapons and unaltered femininity in a world of more or less misogynistic males,
Monica Vitti dominates in the Italian cinema of the 70s.
He allows himself extravagance of quality (as in the roles sewn on his charm by Miklos Jacso ', Luis Bunuel, Andre' Cayatte), works with the great Italians (from Dino Risi to Ettore Scola, from Monicelli to Luigi Magni de La Tosca), alongside Antonioni in the electronic experimentation of The Mystery of Oberwald), triumphs paired with Alberto Sordi (especially thanks to Polvere di stelle directed by Albertone), pushes Carlo Di Palma (the great director of photography who is became her partner) and then the photographer Roberto Russo who made her directorial debut with Flirt which won her the award for best actress in Berlin in 1983.
STARDUST
Together with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement that in 1995 was given to her by Gillo Pontecorvo at the Venice Film Festival, it is one of the major international awards that flank the 5 David, 12 Golden Globes and 3 Silver Ribbons earned at home.
Never stopping in his thirst for life and challenge, he also conquers television audiences together with Mina (Milleluci in '74 and Domenica in twenty years later), he writes two autobiographical books, he signs his only direction (Secret Scandal) in 1990, he brings in the theater the great American comedy from The Strange Couple to the First Page.
At the dawn of the new century the volcano goes out, almost inadvertently and only the dedication of her husband Roberto Russo protects her from the morbid curiosity of the paparazzi.
So today we can see and remember her, immortal,