VENI VIDI VITTI:

FOUR FILMS WITH MONICA VITTI

The high priestess of frosty sensuality, actress Monica Vitti became an arthouse sensation in the early 1960s with an informal quadrilogy of films ‘on modernity and its discontents’ by her then-partner, director Michelangelo Antonioni. The straw blond Italian – perhaps somewhat of a paradox in its own right – emanated a sphinx-like presence; a mixture of remoteness and ferocity that would be served up as the perfect cocktail of ‘60s ennui Antonioni’s films L’Avventura, La Notte, L’Eclisse and Il Deserto Rosso were critiquing. Honoring the legacy of Monica Vitti, who passed away this February at the age of 90, LAB111 is proud to bring these four modernistic classics to be (re)discovered.

Of all the Italian filmmakers of the post-neorealist era, Antonioni is undoubtedly the most influential but his impact on world cinema would’ve never been as powerful without the sensual and intense characterizations of his muse. The shadow of their collaborations – whether in terms of subject matter or style – looms large over the works of filmmakers as diverse as Wim Wenders, Michael Haneke, Sofia Coppola and Paolo Sorrentino, to name but a few.

Trailer by Baris Azman.