Monica Vitti

A cool, elegant beauty who began appearing in films in the mid-1950s, playing characters far from her sprightly self. Monica Vitti was cast in several stage plays directed by Michelangelo Antonioni in the later part of the decade and gained international recognition for her performances in his films. With a presence as distant and forlorn as the landscape that figures so prominently in Antonioni's work, Vitti was perfectly suited to his singular vision, contributing memorably to the classic trilogy, "L'Avventura"(1960), "La Notte" (1961) and "L'Eclisse" (1962) and to the neurotic study of angst and alienation, "Red Desert" (1964). Vitti made her own directing debut in 1989 with "Scandalo Segreto/Secret Scandal." Monica Vitti died on February 2, 2022 in her native Rome at the age of 90.