Parolini moved to Paris in 1957 and worked as a secretary at Cahiers du cinéma from 1960 to 1962.
During this period, she appeared in Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin's cinéma vérité documentary Chronique d'un été (1961).
[1] She later returned to Italy and worked with Pier Paolo Pasolini and Bernardo Bertolucci, with whom she also collaborated as a screenwriter.
She was married to Rivette and collaborated on his improvisational scripts on several films, including L'amour fou (1969), Duelle and Noroît (both 1976).
Parolini was the subject of the documentary L'amica delle rondini (Friend of the Swallows, 2009).