Monica Vitti: La Modernista Series

Film at Lincoln Center and Cinecittà present a special career-spanning tribute to the actress who helped define one of the greatest periods in Italian and world cinema. This 14-film series marks the first North American retrospective dedicated to Monica Vitti’s groundbreaking career, with new restorations of several of her essential films.

Few actors in film history have embodied modernism quite as strikingly or as comprehensively as Monica Vitti. An equally magnetic and enigmatic screen presence from the outset of her career, she began acting in films in the mid-1950s, and soon thereafter began her pivotal collaboration with Michelangelo Antonioni. Their artistic partnership produced some of the 1960s’ most indelible and iconic works of film art, beginning with her breakout turn in L’avventura (1960) through to arguably her greatest performance, as an industrialist’s wife whose alienation from her harsh, polluted environment turns all-consumingly inward, in 1964’s Red Desert. But in addition to her landmark films with Antonioni, Vitti also worked across a broad swath of Italian (and international) cinema, having memorable and fruitful collaborations with such eminent directors as Ettore Scola, Joseph Losey, Mario Monicelli, and Luis Buñuel.

Born in Rome in 1931, Monica Vitti endured an impoverished childhood and a troubled domestic life, which led her to seek out acting as a way to escape her strict household. She graduated from Rome’s National Academy of Dramatic Art in 1953 and began her film career in 1954, leading to more than 30 years in front of the camera. Over the course of her prolific career, Monica Vitti received some of European cinema’s most prestigious recognition. She won five David di Donatello Awards for Best Actress, three Nastro d’Argento awards, and eight Globi d’Oro (Italian Golden Globe), including honors for Best Actress, Most Promising Actress, and two Lifetime Achievement Awards. Her international acclaim included the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin International Film Festival for Flirt, the Concha de Plata for Best Actress at the San Sebastián Film Festival for The Girl with the Pistol, and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival in 1995. In 1961, she also received a BAFTA nomination for her unforgettable performance in L’avventura. She made 55 films in 35 years, leaving a legacy that today is honored not only in Italy, but throughout the entire world of cinema.

Acknowledgements: Compass Film; CSC – Cineteca Nazionale; Fondazione Alberto Sordi.

Schedule:

4:00 PM: The Girl with a Pistol
6:15 PM: Red Desert
8:45 PM: L’eclisse

Tickets:
$17: General Public
$14: Students, Seniors, and Persons with Disabilities
$12: Members

All-Access Pass: $139
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Student All-Access Pass: $99
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