my voyage to italy: pt. 5

In my mind there is no one and nothing quite like Monica Vitti. She is more cerebral and elusive than Sophia Loren's overt come-hither sensuality. She is more adult and intelligent than Claudia Cardinale's bunny like sex bomb features. She isn't as outwardly expressive and coarse looking as Anna Magnani. She is in a class of her own. Her features and slow burning stares were an ideal source of inspiration for her maestro Micheangelo Antonioni's loose tetralogy of films ("L'Avventura", "La Notte", "L'Eclisse", and "Il Deserto Rosso") that explored modern isolation, bourgeois repression, and sex in the post-war Italy. In these films she is essence of the new Italian woman who defines on her own terms what she wants from the world, from her parnter, and most importantly, herself. Impossibly chic and watchable, Vitti saunters with an unusual stillness through Antonioni's films with very little dialogue to rely on, but instead what is resonate is the way she looks out of a window, allows a fan to catch a breeze through her hair, or walk down an urban jungle polluted with cars, office buildings, and technology. Her versatility is unparalleled and brings a unique gift to films such as "Modesty Blaise" and "The Phantom Liberty." Jeff Daneils's character in "The Squid and the Whale" hits on his nurse because her beauty is reminiscent of Vitti's. That comes as no surprise because when you watch a film starring Vitti you feel like it's an intimate and quiet occasion between you and a lovely lady staring back at you, waiting for you to escape with her but maybe she hasn't made up her mind yet. Vitti is unpredictable, unprecedented, and unequivocally a phenomenon.

Essential Monica Vitti moments:
*Wandering into a sea of gawking men much to her surprise in "L'Avventura"
*Writhing around a blood red room in "The Red Desert"
*Playing hard to get with Alain Delon in "L'Eclisse"