Series Site
June 11–August 13, 2026
Born Maria Luisa Ceciarelli in Rome in 1931, Monica Vitti graduated from the National Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1953, and over the course of the next four decades, she acted in over fifty films. Her roles in four of Michelangelo Antonioni’s groundbreaking films of the 1960s contributed to the couple’s acclaim and made her one of world cinema’s most recognizable faces. After working with Antonioni, Vitti also became beloved for her work in scores of popular comedies. Thanks to recent restorations supported by Cinecittà in Rome, this series offers the opportunity to experience a selection of Vitti’s best work on the big screen.
Vitti’s first work in front of Antonioni’s camera—as a voice actor, she dubbed the role of Dorian Gray in Il grido (1957)—was L’avventura (1960). It ushered in a radical new era of modernist cinema—and via Vitti, a new kind of protagonist entirely unlike the earthy, ethereal, or voluptuous leading ladies familiar to audiences of Italian cinema at the time. Critic Gilberto Perez asserted that “Antonioni’s films are modernist mystery stories, and Vitti’s characters are something like detective figures.” A proxy for the director’s observations on postwar alienation, Vitti allows glimpses of turbulence to surface through her patrician reserve, suggesting the possibility of real human connection. The restrained energy embodied in her roles for Antonioni is let loose in her exuberant characterizations in the comedies of Carlo Di Palma, Mario Monicelli, Luciano Salce, and Alberto Sordi, which also explore the challenges and contradictions of life and relationships in contemporary Italy through decidedly different lenses.
—Kate MacKay, Film Curator