Prot-a-gonist * Being myself in life’s most intense, fascinating game | Monica Vitti, 1931-2022
Willy Rizzo, Monica Vitti, 1960
“In the morning, I’m like the Antonioni movies. I’m little sad. I haven’t the courage to start the day. In the evenings, I’m happier, more alive – like the character I play in ‘An Almost Perfect Affair.”
“I was an anguished little girl with just one wish: to become an actor. I debuted in live theater at 14 with Dario Niccodemi‘s ‘La Nemica.”
Monica Vitti and Michelangelo Antonioni on the set of La Notte, 1961
“I had very strict parents. My two brothers were power and freedom. I was powerlessness and seclusion.”
“My whole family went away to America to live. They said “How can you stay alone in Italy?” But I used their absence to become an actress.”
“The theater is so big and dark and private. Nobody knows that I am there. I am relaxed. I forget completely I am an actress. I laugh, I applaud, I cry.”
Monica Vitti, Modesty Blaise, 1966
“I played at being someone else in movies and live theater, and at being myself in life’s most intense, fascinating game – the game of love.”
“I am unwilling to strip completely before the cameras.”
“Despite what people say about my major film roles, I’m not a dull or monotonous woman searching for self-identity.”
Monica Vitti and Alain Delon on the set of L’eclisse, 1962
“I’m lively and gay by nature.”
“Making people laugh is a wonderful thing. Discovering how to make people laugh is like discovering you are the king’s daughter.”
“Alberto Sordi is funny in real life too. Eduardo De Filippo was very witty, and Buñuel had a genius abstract spirit. Monicelli is another extraordinary humourist.”
Marcello Mastroianni and Monica Vitti
“I adore gelato; it’s a pleasure I shared for years with my friend Gabriel Garcia Marquez.”
“If I’m forced with a gun to my head to describe myself, I will comply, and start like this – a true blonde, a true astigmatic, truly passionate, a true glutton, a true friend, truly curious, and I am not interested in gossip because I forget.”
Monica Vitti, 1931-2022
Also:
Prot-a-gonist* Monica Vitti | Photos by Pierluigi Praturlon, 1965
Flick Review < The Eclipse | Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962
