This August, BFI Southbank presents MONICA VITTI: CREATIVE FORCE in partnership with Cinecittà and the Cinema Department of the Ministry of Culture, celebrating Italian star and filmmaker Monica Vitti. Curated by Catherine O’Rawe, the season runs at BFI Southbank from 1–31 August and features a number of 4K restorations by Cinecittà, CSC – Cineteca Nazionale and Minerva Pictures, alongside rare 35mm screenings, exploring the full breadth of Vitti’s remarkable career, from her celebrated collaborations with Michelangelo Antonioni to the comic performances and directorial work that demonstrate the extraordinary range of her artistry.
Famous in the 1960s as the face of a new cinematic language she helped create with Michelangelo Antonioni, and internationally celebrated as a hugely influential style icon, Monica Vitti was also a classically trained theatre actor, a natural comedian, a singer, a writer and, eventually, a director. Beloved in Italy for the comic films she made in the 1970s and 80s, she rebelled against the designation of passive muse. MONICA VITTI: CREATIVE FORCE showcases Vitti’s unruly comic persona alongside her passionate disruption of conventional Italian gender roles, revealing the extraordinary range of her performances as she moves between humour, pathos, camp and rebelliousness, often within the same film. As Antonioni famously observed of his collaborator, “I have never seen acting that is more modern.” The season invites audiences to rediscover an artist whose contribution to cinema extended far beyond the image that first made her an international icon.
Among the season’s highlights are two rare 35mm screenings of SECRET SCANDAL (1989), the only film Monica Vitti wrote and directed and her final big-screen appearance. A bravura meditation on performance and femininity, it sees Vitti give a vulnerable and heartbreaking portrayal of a woman who begins recording every aspect of her life on video, only for the ever-present camera to reveal the dark secrets of her marriage and trigger an existential crisis.
At the heart of the season are Vitti’s landmark collaborations with Michelangelo Antonioni: L’AVVENTURA (1960), LA NOTTE (1961), L’ECLISSE (1962) and RED DESERT (1964), with RED DESERT presented in a 4K restoration by Cinecittà and CSC – Cineteca Nazionale. L’AVVENTURA launched Vitti to stardom as the beautiful, dissatisfied Claudia, making her the brooding face of 1960s art cinema, while RED DESERT, Antonioni’s first colour feature, features one of her most devastating performances as the fragile Giuliana. LA NOTTE will be accompanied by a pre-recorded introduction from writer Joanna Biggs, while L’ECLISSE will feature an introduction by season curator Catherine O’Rawe. Completing the Antonioni collaborations is Vitti’s final film with the director, the rarely seen THE OBERWALD MYSTERY (1980), adapted from a play by Jean Cocteau and notable for its complex experiments with colour and Vitti’s poignant performance.
Beyond Antonioni, the season celebrates the extraordinary comic performer who became beloved by Italian audiences. CLEVER GIRLS (Mario Amendola, 1958), screening on 35mm and introduced by Professor Richard Dyer, is an early and little-seen film in Vitti’s career, showcasing her nascent star power in a female-driven comedy of errors. One of the biggest style icons of the 1960s, Vitti’s two films made in swinging sixties London also feature in the season: MODESTY BLAISE (Joseph Losey, 1966), screening on 35mm, marks her first English-speaking role, in which she dazzles in an array of sensational costumes and poses alongside Terence Stamp and Dirk Bogarde, while THE GIRL WITH A PISTOL (Mario Monicelli, 1968), restored in 4K by Cinecittà, follows a young Sicilian woman whose journey across Britain gradually becomes one of women’s liberation and self-fulfilment.
Further 4K restorations include I MARRIED YOU FOR FUN (Luciano Salce, 1967), TERESA THE THIEF (Carlo Di Palma, 1973) and I KNOW THAT YOU KNOW THAT I KNOW (Alberto Sordi, 1982). The 4K restoration of I MARRIED YOU FOR FUN, introduced by writer and researcher Olga Campofreda, was carried out by Cinecittà in its digital laboratories, using film materials found in Paris (preserved at Éclair Preservation) and owned by StudioCanal. Among these materials, two scenes cut by the censors at the time were discovered and have now been reinserted, allowing audiences to enjoy the complete restored version of Salce’s film, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last year.
The season also includes TOSCA (Luigi Magni, 1973), in which Vitti skilfully combines tragedy and rebelliousness, and STARDUST (Alberto Sordi, 1973), introduced by Catherine O’Rawe, where she showcases her talents as both a singer and dancer alongside legendary comedian and director Alberto Sordi.
Events include Monica Vitti Season Introduction: More Than a Muse on 6 August, where season curator Catherine O’Rawe and invited guests will explore the full breadth of Vitti’s filmography, discussing her status as the face of post-war European cinema, her position within the Italian film industry, her multilayered performances and her determination to direct her final film.
MONICA VITTI: CREATIVE FORCE runs at BFI Southbank from 1–31 August 2026. Tickets are on sale now at whatson.bfi.org.uk. Full programme details and listings are available here.
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