Maria Luisa Ceciarelli (3 November 1931 – 2 February 2022), known professionally as Monica Vitti, was an Italian actress who starred in several award-winning films directed by Michelangelo Antonioni during the 1960s.

[5][6] Vitti acted in amateur productions as a teenager, then trained as an actress at Rome's National Academy of Dramatic Arts (graduating in 1953) and at Pittman's College, where she played a teen in a charity performance of Dario Niccodemi's La nemica.

[11] She did an episode of the television series Mont-Oriol (1958)[citation needed] and dubbed Rossana Rory's voice in Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958).

[13][14] In 1957 she joined Michelangelo Antonioni's Teatro Nuovo di Milano and dubbed the voice of Dorian Gray in the director's Il Grido (The Cry, 1957).

[15] She played a leading role in Antonioni's internationally praised film L'Avventura (1960) as a detached and cool protagonist drifting into a relationship with the lover of her missing girlfriend.

[2][16] Giving a screen presence that has been described as "stunning", she is also credited with helping Antonioni raise money for the production and sticking with him through daunting location shooting.

"[18] Vitti received critical praise for her starring roles in the Antonioni film La Notte (Night, 1961), with Jeanne Moreau and Marcello Mastroianni.

[24] Vitti's first English-language film was Modesty Blaise (1966), a mod James Bond spy spoof that co-starred Terence Stamp and Dirk Bogarde and was directed by Joseph Losey: it had only mixed success and received harsh critical reviews.

[27] Vitti starred with Marcello Mastroianni in Ettore Scola's highly successful romantic comedy, Dramma della gelosia (The Pizza Triangle, 1970).

[28] Vitti was in a version of La Tosca (1973)[5] and in several comedies directed by Carlo Di Palma, who was her partner for several years in the 1970s, beginning with Teresa the Thief (1973).

[29][33] She was in Duck in Orange Sauce (1975),[34] Mimì Bluette... fiore del mio giardino (1976),[29] Basta che non si sappia in giro!..

[38] A New York Times article from that period reported Vitti had resisted starring in American films as she did not like long travel, especially by air, and believed that her English was not of a high enough standard.

[39] Indeed, such was her aversion to travelling from Europe that Paramount Pictures was apparently forced to cancel the first leg of a publicity tour organised in the US to promote the release of An Almost Perfect Affair.