Above: Italian poster for The Girl with a Pistol (Mario Monicelli, Italy, 1968). Artist: Giorgio Olivetti.
Monica Vitti, who died on February 2nd at the age of 90, was an icon of modern cinema—one of its most famous and most beautiful faces—but she is best known outside Italy for just four films, all of which she made for her one-time partner Michelangelo Antonioni. In the original Italian poster for L’avventura (1960), the film that made both their names, her head is tilted to the side, her face barely visible: she is mostly a shock of blonde hair. But in the posters that were created as that film travelled the globe, and in her ensuing posters for Antonioni's La notte (1961), L’eclisse (1962), and Red Desert (1964), she gets her close-up, usually staring into the middle distance or directly at the viewer. Always impassive, never smiling.
But of course, in a career that lasted another 25 years there were many more films, most of them unknown to non-Italian audiences, the major exception being her first English-language film, Joseph Losey’s Modesty Blaise (1966), which was a flop but which has survived in my mind thanks to Bob Peak’s brilliant poster. She also had international success with Ettore Scola’s comedy The Pizza Triangle, a.k.a. A Drama of Jealousy (and Other Things) (1970), but the film is less well-known today. She retired from the cinema in 1990 after the disappointing reception of her directorial debut, Secret Scandal, which she also wrote and co-starred in alongside Elliott Gould.
Until the mid 1970s at least—when photography began to take over from illustration in movie poster design—Vitti was drawn and painted for her posters by some of the great poster artists and it is fascinating to see her various incarnations though the years (including the more stylized versions by Polish, Hungarian and Cuban artists.) In the Italian comedies which were the mainstay of her post-Antonioni career, Vitti is often painted as a buxom bombshell, quite different from her troubled, elegant Antonioni heroines. But one thing never changed: that impassive stare. Even in posters for comedies she is rarely portrayed with anything more than a wry smile.
Above: Original Italian poster for L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1960). Artist: Carlantonio Longi.
Above: detail from the Argentinian poster for L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1960). Artist unknown.
Above: Argentinian poster for L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1960). Art based on the French poster by Carlantonio Longi.
Above: Belgian poster for L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1960). Artist unknown.
Above: detail from the UK quad poster for L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1960). Artist unknown.
Above: UK quad poster for L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1960). Artist unknown.
Above: detail from the Italian locandina for L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1960). Artist: Sandro Symeoni.
Above: Italian locandina for L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1960). Artist: Sandro Symeoni.
Above: Italian poster for La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1961). Artist: Giuliano Nistri.
Above: Billboard poster for La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1961). Artist: Ercole Brini.
Above: detail from the Argentinian poster for L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1964). Artist unknown.
Above: Argentinian poster for L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1964). Artist unknown.
Above: Australian poster for L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1962). Artist unknown.
Above: Polish poster for L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1962). Artist: Andrzej Onegin-Dabrowski.
Above: French 1990s re-release poster for L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1962). Artist unknown.
Above: German poster for Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1964). Artist unknown.
Above: Cuban poster for Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1964). Artist: Eduardo Munoz Bachs.
Above: Polish poster for High Infidelity (Mario Monicelli, Elio Petri, Luciano Salce & Franco Rossi, Italy, 1964). Artist: Jerzy Flisak.
Above: detail from US one sheet for Modesty Blaise (Joseph Losey, UK, 1966). Artist: Bob Peak.
Above: US one sheet for Modesty Blaise (Joseph Losey, UK, 1966). Artist: Bob Peak.
Above: detail from the French grande for The Queens (Mauro Bolognini, Mario Monicelli, Antonio Pietrangeli, Luciano Salce, Italy, 1966). Artist: Jean Mascii.
Above: French grande for The Queens (Mauro Bolognini, Mario Monicelli, Antonio Pietrangeli, Luciano Salce, Italy, 1966). Artist: Jean Mascii.
Above: detail from the US one sheet for The Queens (Mauro Bolognini, Mario Monicelli, Antonio Pietrangeli, Luciano Salce, Italy, 1966). Artist unknown.
Above: US one sheet for The Queens (Mauro Bolognini, Mario Monicelli, Antonio Pietrangeli, Luciano Salce, Italy, 1966). Artist unknown.
Above: detail from the US one sheet for On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who... (Pasquale Festa Campanile, Italy, 1967). Artist unknown.
Above: US one sheet for On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who... (Pasquale Festa Campanile, Italy, 1967). Artist unknown.
Above: Italian poster for The Girl with a Pistol (Mario Monicelli, Italy, 1968). Artist unknown.
Above: 1970 Polish poster for The Girl with a Pistol (Mario Monicelli, Italy, 1968). Artist: Hannah Bodnar.
Above: Italian poster for The Scarlet Lady (Jean Valère, Italy, 1969). Artist unknown.
Above: Hungarian poster for The Scarlet Lady (Jean Valère, Italy, 1969). Artist: Tibor Jakfalvy.
Above: Italian poster for The Pacifist (Miklos Jancso, Italy, 1970). Artist unknown.
Above: detail from the Italian poster for The Pizza Triangle (Ettore Scola, Italy, 1970). Artist unknown.
Above: Italian poster for The Pizza Triangle (Ettore Scola, Italy, 1970). Artist unknown.
Above: US one sheet for The Pizza Triangle (Ettore Scola, Italy, 1970). Artist unknown.
Above: Polish poster for The Pizza Triangle (Ettore Scola, Italy, 1970). Artist: Jerzy Flisak.
Above: Argentinian poster for Man and Wife (Vittorio de Sica, Mario Monicelli & Alberto Sordi, Italy, 1970). Artist unknown.
Above: Italian poster for That’s How We Women Are (Dino Risi, Italy, 1971). Artist unknown.
Above: detail from Italian poster for Orders are Orders (Franco Giraldi, Italy, 1972). Artist unknown.
Above: Italian poster for Orders are Orders (Franco Giraldi, Italy, 1972). Artist unknown.
Above: Italian poster for Mimi Bluette (Carlo di Palma, Italy, 1976). Artist unknown.