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‘Queen of Italian cinema’: Film icon Monica Vitti dies aged 90

AFP
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‘Queen of Italian cinema’: Film icon Monica Vitti dies aged 90
Spanish director Luis Bunuel (L) talks to French actor Jean-Claude Brialy (C) and Italian actress Monica Vitti on the stage of his 1974 film " The Phantom of Liberty". During his career Bunuel made over 30 films from 1928 to 1978. His first films, made with Salvador Dali, were a sensation with their surrealistic, macabre approach : "An Andalousian Dog", 1928 and "The Golden Age". His career then went into eclipse until he settled in Mexico (1947) where he directed such major films as "Los Olvidados" (1950) for which he won the 1951 Cannes Film Festival's best director award. His main films are "Viridiana" (1961), "The Discret Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972) and "That Obscure Object of Desire" (1977). (Photo by STAFF / AFP)

Actress Monica Vitti, best known for her starring roles in films by Michelangelo Antonioni, has died aged 90, the Italian culture ministry said on Wednesday.

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"Goodbye Monica Vitti, goodbye queen of Italian cinema. Today is a truly sad day, we have lost a great artist and a great Italian," Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said in a statement.

 Vitti shot to international fame with the 1960 drama "L'Avventura" ("The Adventure") in which she plays a tormented woman who dallies with the lover of her missing friend.

Born in Rome on November 3, 1931, Vitti, real name Maria Luisa Ceciarelli, discovered her passion for the theatre during World War Two when she entertained her family with puppets to relieve boredom.

"As the bombs fell, when we had to take refuge in the shelters, my little brother and I would improvise little plays to entertain those around us," she later recounted.

After graduating from Rome's National Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1953, she began her career in the theatre, revealing a natural comic talent.

Vitti - who stood out from Italian contemporaries such as Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida for her freckles and mane of blond hair - was eventually spotted by Antonioni, with whom she quickly developed an artistic and sentimental relationship.

This file photograph taken in 1962 shows Italian actress Monica Vitti acting in a scene of the film L'Eclipse (L'Eclisse). Photo by AFP.

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"I was lucky enough to start my career with a man of great talent", but who was also "spiritual, full of life and enthusiasm", Vitti said in an interview on Italian television in 1982 

Working in dozens of films throughout the 60s and 70s, Vitti's output slowed the following decade, although she collaborated again with Antonioni in 1980 for "The Mystery of Oberwald".

Former Italian culture minister Walter Veltroni broke the news of Vitti's death with a tweet. He said he had been asked to do so by Roberto Russo, Vitti's husband, and expressed his "pain, affection and regret".

The actress, who had been suffering from a degenerative disease, had withdrawn from public life in recent years.

Vitti's death drew accolades across the spectrum of Italian society, with Prime Minister Mario Draghi saying Vitti "made Italian cinema shine around the world".

"An actress of great wit and extraordinary talent, she conquered generations of Italians with her spirit, her bravura, her beauty," Draghi said in a statement.

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