90 years of Monica Vitti, the most loved

“Absence, more acute presence”. The dense poetry of Attilio Bertolucci manages to summarize what many lovers of Italian cinema, and many Italians in general, feel when thinking about Monica Vitti, that on November 3 he turns 90 years old. For twenty years she has not shown herself anymore, protected by her husband, the director Roberto Russo married in September 2000, and snatched away from the public, who still dreams of her so much, by a degenerative disease.

Maria Luisa Ceciarelli, so called in the registry office, after the diploma in 1953 at the Academy of Dramatic Art with Silvio D’Amico he chooses a name by making it sound similar to that of his mother, Adele Vittiglia, and with that on he goes to conquer the world. The awards that have been awarded to her are not counted. Just to name a few: David di Donatello for Ninì Tirabusiò, Stardust, My loves; i Nastri d’Argento with The night, The girl with the gun, The duck with orange; a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Venice in 1995.

Work abroad with the big names: Buñuel, Vadim, Losey. No.In the Italy of the 1950s she confronts the curvy and sexy actress model represented by Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren and Silvana Mangano. Yet it finds its space, miraculously poised between busy cinema and Italian comedy. She was able to start from her theatrical beginnings, cross the pensive cinema of Michelangelo Antonioni to get to be the only female comic star of Mario Monicelli and Ettore Scola.

Her mother told her she had “long feet, like an existentialist,” yet she has become the queen of comedies. Much appreciated by those who worked with her, for example Alberto Sordi who loved her as “a sister”: “She has a spirit of self-denial, dedication, she does not throw tantrums. Our relationship is based on professional esteem and love ».

“A unique beauty, hers, personal”, remember Enrico Vanzina, how unique is his voice, hoarse and mellow. It was this that brought her from Michelangelo Antonioni, the director with whom he lived a long love story. So he said: «As in fairy tales, one fine day Antonioni was looking for the voice of the attendant of the He shouted. It needed a bit of a breather and mine was ideal. During the dubbing I received a comment from the director who was behind me. “He has a nice nape, he could make the cinema “. His stories resembled me, so my great adventure began ».

Able to impersonate complex characters with the interpretations for Antonioni, but also to bring good humor and joy to the brilliant roles, she lives within herself this dual nature: “I am not at all a buffoon in life, on the contrary I am rather an anguished one and I dedicate myself to work in a total way. Then, on set, I become a buffoon, but I’m proud of it because it’s our great tradition as comedians ». Monica Vitti invented for herself a place in the cinema: «There was a tradition for male comedians to refer to, models. As a comic actress I could not have imitated anyone. In Italy there were only the beautiful and the character girls. An actress who was physically normal and who knew how to act and make people laugh did not exist ». Whatever she did, she was able to draw attention to herself, as she already knew how to do as a child when, to get noticed by the guests of her home, showed the seven skirts she wore to protect herself from the cold (and “seven petticoats” was his nickname for years). And even today, which no longer shows itself, she is still very much present in everyone’s memories, with her seven skirts protecting her from curiosity, leaving love intact.

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