Monica Vitti: Creative Force

‘I have never seen acting that is more modern.’
– Michelangelo Antonioni

Vitti was internationally celebrated as Antonioni’s favourite actor – the enigmatic face of his masterpieces – and as a 1960s style icon. She was also a classically trained theatre actor, a natural comedian, a singer, a writer and, eventually, a director. Beloved in Italy for the comic films she made in the 1970s and 80s, she rebelled against the designation of passive muse. This season showcases Vitti’s unruly comic persona, alongside her passionate disruption of conventional Italian gender roles. The range of her performances is striking, as she moves within the same film between humour, pathos, camp and rebelliousness. The season also features a rare screening of the only film she wrote and directed – a bravura meditation on performance and femininity.

Catherine O’Rawe, season curator

In partnership with

Cinecittà and the Cinema Department of the Ministry of Culture.

Cinecitta

With thanks to

Paola Ruggiero, Camilla Cormanni, Marco Cicala and Germana Ruscio.

Event

Monica Vitti Season Introduction: More than a Muse

Season curator Catherine O’Rawe offers a journey through the life and career of the Italian screen icon.

Season programme

Clever Girls

Monica Vitti shines as a woman determined to snag a husband in 1950s Italy.

Clever Girls + intro by writer Richard Dyer

Monica Vitti shines as a woman determined to snag a husband in 1950s Italy.

L’avventura

Monica Vitti became the face of 1960s art cinema with this stunning, enigmatic drama.

La notte

Existential angst has never looked as good as it does in Michelangelo Antonioni’s exploration of urban alienation.

La notte + pre-recorded intro by writer Joanna Biggs

Existential angst has never looked as good as it does in Michelangelo Antonioni’s exploration of urban alienation.

L’eclisse

Monica Vitti and Alain Delon are sublime and breathtakingly beautiful in Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterpiece.

L’eclisse + intro by season curator Catherine O’Rawe

Monica Vitti and Alain Delon are sublime and breathtakingly beautiful in Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterpiece.

Red Desert

Michelangelo Antonioni’s devastating film features Monica Vitti as a woman struggling to keep her hold on reality.

Modesty Blaise

Joseph Losey’s camp, kitsch, cult spy caper spoofs the Swinging Sixties in some style.

I Married You for Fun

Monica Vitti is radiant in Luciano Salce’s stylish take on the sexual revolution in Italy.

I Married You for Fun + intro by writer and researcher Olga Campofreda

Monica Vitti is radiant in Luciano Salce’s stylish take on the sexual revolution in Italy.

The Girl with a Pistol

Monic Vitti is engaging in this tale of revenge, fashion and nascent feminism in Swinging Sixties Britain.

Tosca

Monica Vitti and Vittorio Gassman are perfectly paired in this uniquely Roman retelling of Tosca.

Stardust

Monica Vitti and Alberto Sordi, in their last on-screen pairing, shine in this bittersweet comic musical.

Stardust + intro by season curator Catherine O’Rawe

Monica Vitti and Alberto Sordi, in their last on-screen pairing, shine in this bittersweet comic musical.

Teresa the Thief

Monica Vitti dominates this tale of female resilience against a backdrop of 20th-century Italian history.

I Know That You Know That I Know

Monica Vitti is a depressed wife whose marital secrets unravel in this ultra-dark comedy.

The Oberwald Mystery

Monica Vitti’s final collaboration with Antonioni in a beguiling and masterfully-directed historical drama.

Secret Scandal

Monica Vitti’s sole venture into directing is a bravura reflection on female identity.