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| Michelangelo Antonioni’s La Notte, starring Monica Vitti, Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau screens in Cinecittà and Film at Lincoln Center’s Monica Vitti: La Modernista |
Before the Film at Lincoln Center and Cinecittà’s 24th edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema luncheon at Leopard at des Artistes, I asked Fabrizio Gifuni, star of the Opening Night film, Francesca Comencini’s The Time It Takes (Il Tempo Che Ci Vuole with Anna Mangiocavallo) and directors Andrea Segre of The Great Ambition (Berlinguer. La Grande Ambizione with Elio Germano as Enrico Berlinguer), Sara Fgaier of Weightless (Sulla Terra Leggeri with Andrea Renzi and Sara Serraiocco), Alissa Jung of Paternal Leave (with Juli Grabenhenrich, Luca Marinelli, and Arturo Gabbriellini), and Ferzan Özpetek of Diamonds (Diamanti with Luisa Ranieri and Jasmine Trinca) to name their favourite Monica Vitti films.
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| Monica Vitti: La Modernista |
Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterpieces L’Avventura (4K Restoration); L’Eclisse opposite Alain Delon, La Notte with Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau, and the 4K Restoration of Red Desert with Richard Harris will all be shown, together with Ettore Scola’s comedy Jealousy, Italian Style (Dramma Della Gelosia) in which Vitti stars opposite Mastroianni and Giancarlo Giannini, in the 14-film retrospective Monica Vitti: La Modernista, which includes 4K Restorations of some of her most memorable films.
Mario Monicelli’s The Girl With A Pistol (La Ragazza Con La Pistola) opens this wonderful tribute on Friday, June 6 at 6:00pm at the Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center.
The Mystery Of Oberwald, her final film with Antonioni, is a special treat for those who enjoyed Frauke Finsterwalder’s Sisi & I or Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage, and Luis Buñuel’s The Phantom Of Liberty is always worth revisiting.
Last year’s Open Roads included a special homage to the actress in Roberta Torre’s wondrous film Mi Fanno Male I Capelli (In The Mirror) with Alba Rohrwacher playing an uncanny alter ego to the great star. The title of the film is a reference to a line Vitti says to the Richard Harris character in Antonioni’s Red Desert, about her hair hurting. It is a perfect example of her cool, her mesmerising persona, who makes us see the world at a slightly different angle with a glimpse or a stroll or a shake of her head.
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| Monica Vitti in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Red Desert |
Anne-Katrin Titze: Film at Lincoln Center has the first American Monica Vitti retrospective coming up. Are you a fan?
Alissa Jung: I’m not a huge expert of her work, but from the films I’ve seen I think it’s very impressive that she in this period had her very own style and is a great example for strong female acting. So yes, I love her!
AKT: Do you have a favourite movie of hers?
AJ: I don’t have a favourite because I’m bad at names!
AKT: The Antonioni films also blend a bit in my mind.
AJ: I think there are special gazes of her, when she just looks.
AKT: And her walk! How she carries herself. In Red Desert, I would want to wear everything and anything she wears!
AJ: Because she has this attitude!
AKT: Fabrizio, do you have a favourite Monica Vitti film?
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| Monica Vitti in Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Mystery Of Oberwald |
Fabrizio Gifuni: Yes! Jealousy, Italian Style is my favourite. With Marcello Mastroianni and Giancarlo Giannini. She is torn between the two. What you see in that film is just the extraordinary comic talent that Monica Vitti had. To give truth and to restore humanity to these characters and not to reduce them to caricatures. You see that in her whole career ranging from Antonioni to Commedia all'Italiana.
AKT: Are you a fan of Monica Vitti’s work?
Sara Fgaier: Yes, I really like Monica Vitti. She’s one of my favourite actresses. She was a great great actress. The films with Antonioni! The one I saw last year was La Notte.
AKT: Oh yes, with Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau. It’s fantastic.
SF: It’s amazing!
AKT: Do you have a favourite Monica Vitti film?
Andrea Segre: Il Deserto Rosso (Red Desert)!
AKT: Because?
AS: Because I love it!
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| Monica Vitti: La Modernista poster at the Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center |
AKT: I love it too!
Ferzan Özpetek dedicated his film Diamanti to three [dead] actresses he plans to work with. One of them is Monica Vitti (the other two are Virna Lisi and Mariangela Melato).
AKT: What is your favourite Monica Vitti movie?
Ferzan Özpetek: My story with Monica Vitti is when my first film came out, which was a big success in Italy, The Turkish Bath it’s called here, and I received the Golden Globe in Italy for that. I went to Cinecittà to pick it up and as I was arriving, Monica Vitti was leaving, accompanied by someone else, who was a French journalist.
And he said, Monica, this is the director of that film you saw the other day, that you liked so much. And she said, congratulations! And she started to leave. But in my head in a way I wanted more. And as if she sensed that, she turned around and came back to me and said, you are going to make a lot of beautiful films! So it’s a very special memory for me.
AKT: And you are still hoping to somewhere film with her because cinema is a magical place?
FÖ: Yes absolutely!
Monica Vitti: La Modernista runs from Friday, June 6 through Thursday, June 19 at the Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center.
