CNN – Monica Vitti — a revered star of Italian cinema — has died at the age of 90, according to Italian politician and family friend Walter Veltroni, who made the announcement on Twitter. “Roberto Russo, her life companion for many years, asked me to announce that Monica Vitti is no longer here.
I do this with pain, affection and regret,” Veltroni wrote on Wednesday. Vitti was well-known for her work with some of Italy and Europe’s most influential filmmakers throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Outside of her home country, she was perhaps most famous for her performances in Michelangelo Antonioni’s international breakthrough trilogy: “L’Avventura,” “La Notte” and “L’Eclisse.” She would later return to work with Antonioni once again on “The Mystery of Oberwald” in 1980. Vitti — born Maria Luisa Ceciarelli on November 3, 1931 in Rome — worked with many of the giants of cinematic history, including Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel and Italian master Ettore Scola, during a career spanning more than 30 years.
Monica Vitti obituary Star of Michelangelo
TheGuardian – Antonioni’s films in the 1960s who later turned to light comedies
Although she was often described, perhaps with a touch of irony, as the “muse of incommunicability” for her dramatic roles in several of Michelangelo Antonioni’s films, Monica Vitti, who has died aged 90, always aspired to be a comic actor.
In 1962, she had an offer to do a film for Agnès Varda, but turned it down; as she explained in an interview, “I want to remain loyal to Michelangelo, who has promised to make me the Carole Lombard of the second half of the century.” Though Vitti certainly had comparable looks and verve, and did eventually succeed in becoming a popular comedic star, she will probably remain in most film buffs’ minds as Giuliana, the complicated young blond woman in Antonioni’s Il Deserto Rosso (Red Desert, 1964), his first colour feature.
Italian movie star Monica Vitti dies at age 90 in Rome
CTVNews – Monica Vitti, the versatile movie star of Michelangelo Antonioni’s “L’Avventura” and other Italian alienation films of the 1960s, and later a leading comic actress, has died. She was 90.
Her death was announced Wednesday on Twitter by a former culture minister, Walter Veltroni, who said he had been asked to communicate her death by her husband, the photographer Roberto Russo.
Vitti had been out of the public spotlight for years, living quietly in Rome with her husband. She reportedly suffered from a form of dementia.
Monica Vitti, ‘Queen of Italian Cinema,’ Dies at 90
TheNewYorkTimes – Both sensual and cerebral, she made her mark on the international scene in the 1960s, when visionary directors like Michelangelo Antonioni were remaking the cinema landscape.
Monica Vitti, whose chilly sensuality and cerebral approach to her roles enlivened a groundbreaking series of 1960s film masterpieces directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, including the much-debated “L’Avventura,” died on Wednesday in Rome. She was 90.
Her death was announced by the filmmaker Walter Veltroni, who was formerly the mayor of Rome and the culture minister of Italy.
In a news release, Dario Franceschini, Italy’s culture minister, wrote, “Goodbye to the queen of Italian cinema.”
A classically trained actress, Ms. Vitti was already an established stage star in Italy in 1957 when she met Antonioni, who subsequently became her companion for a decade, just as she became his muse and alter ego.
È morta Monica Vitti, icona del cinema italiano
ANSA – Assente dalle scene dal 2001 in seguito alla sua lunga malattia, una forma di Alzheimer che l’ha isolata dal mondo. Aveva compiuto da poco 90 anni. Il cordoglio della cultura e del cinema.
È morta Monica Vitti. Lo scrive Walter Veltroni su twitter. ”Roberto Russo, il suo compagno di questi anni, mi chiede di comunicare che Monica Vitti non c’è più. Lo faccio con grande dolore, affetto, rimpianto”. Nata Maria Luisa Ceciarelli a Roma, il 3 novembre del 1931, aveva compiuto da qualche mese 90 anni. Attrice icona del cinema italiano, era assente dalle scene dal 2001,quando fu ricevuta al Quirinale per i David di Donatello. Musa di Michelangelo Antonioni, regina della commedia all’italiana al fianco di Alberto Sordi. La camera ardente si terrà in Campidoglio venerdì 4 febbraio.
L’omaggio alla Vitti sarà possibile dalle 10 alle 18.00. I funerali si terranno sabato 5 febbraio alle ore 15 nella Chiesa degli artisti a Piazza del Popolo a Roma. A Sanremo lungo applauso della sala stampa alla notizia della sua morte.
Rassegna Stampa
L’omaggio del quotidiano francese ‘Liberation’ a Monica Vitti. ANSA
