Italian iconic actress Monica Vitti died at 90.
She was “the muse of incommunicability” for legendary director Michelangelo Antonioni, and she has been retired (due to Alzheimer’s disease) since 2002.
Vitti, who starred in Antonioni’s L’avventura, La Notte, L’eclissi, and Deserto Rosso in the 1960s, is commonly considered one of the greatest cinema icons ever.
During her career she worked with Marcello Mastroianni, Alain Delon, Richard Harris, Terence Stamp, Michael Caine, and Dirk Bogarde.
She won five David di Donatello Awards for Best Actress, seven Italian Golden Globes for Best Actress, the Career Golden Globe, and the Venice Film Festival Career Golden Lion Award.
Italian comic actor and director Carlo Verdone said once: “(Alberto) Sordi thought she was great, better than any other female lead, because of her proverbial timing, and he loved her too”.
He added: “Ordinary people felt she was close to them, she had entered into everyone’s hearts”.
She made her last public appearance in 2002 at the Paris premiere of the stage-musical Notre-Dame de Paris. In 2011, it was disclosed that Alzheimer’s disease had “removed her from the public gaze for the last 15 years.”