Early roles

Vitti's first film role was an uncredited bit part in Edoardo Anton's Laugh! Laugh! Laugh! (1954). She was in Adriana Lecouvreur (1955), the TV series L'alfiere (1956) and the TV movies Questi ragazzi (1956) and Il tunnel (1958). She did an episode of the television series Mont-Oriol (1958) and dubbed Rossana Rory's voice in Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958).

Vitti's first widely noted performance was at 26, in Mario Amendola's Le dritte (1958) with Franco Fabrizi.^[6] She was in the TV movie Il borghese gentiluomo (1959).^{[7] [8]}

Antonioni

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). Over the next several years in several "intense portraits of alienation she became the perfect mouthpiece for Antonioni himself".^[9] 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. 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. L'Avventura made Vitti an international star. Her image later appeared on an Italian postage stamp commemorating the film.^[10] According to The New York Times, Vitti's "air of disenchantment perfectly conveys the unreal aura of her heroines."^[11]

Vitti received critical praise for her starring roles in the Antonioni film La Notte (Night, 1961), with Jeanne Moreau and Marcello Mastroianni. Vitti starred in a TV movie Le notti bianche (1962), then did a third with Antonioni, L'Eclisse (1962) with Alain Delon.^[12]

Vitti was one of many stars in an anthology movie, Three Fables of Love (1962). She had a cameo in Sweet and Sour (1963) and played the lead in a comedy for Roger Vadim, Nutty, Naughty Chateau (1963). Vitti was then in another anthology film High Infidelity (1964) and made a fourth with Antonioni, Il Deserto Rosso (Red Desert, 1964), with Richard Harris. The director said Vitti "certainly inspires me, because I like to watch and direct her, but the parts I give her are a long way from her own character."^[13] After Vitti's relationship with Antonioni ended, the two did not work together again until Il mistero di Oberwald (1980).^[14]

Vitti starred in a comedy for Tinto Brass, The Flying Saucer (1964), and appeared in the anthology, The Dolls (1964).^[15]

International films

Vitti in The Girl with a Pistol (1968)

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.^[16]

She performed in the anthology movie The Queens (1966), a television series Les fables de La Fontaine (1966), Kill Me Quick, I'm Cold (1967) with Jean Sorel, and I Married You for Fun (1967).

Vitti appeared in On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who... (1967) with Tony Curtis, The Girl with a Pistol (1968) with Stanley Baker,^[17] The Bitch Wants Blood (1969) with Maurice Ronet, and Help Me, My Love (1969) with Alberto Sordi.^[18]

1970s

Vitti in Duck in Orange Sauce (1975)

Vitti starred with Marcello Mastroianni in Ettore Scola's highly successful romantic comedy, Dramma della gelosia (The Pizza Triangle, 1970). She followed it with Ninì Tirabusciò, la donna che inventò la mossa (1970), Le coppie (1970) with Sordi, The Pacifist (1970), La supertestimone (1971), That's How We Women Are (1971), and Orders Are Orders (1972).^[19]

Vitti was in a version of La Tosca (1973)^[4] 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).^[20] She made Polvere di stelle (1973), directed by Alberto Sordi,^[4] for which she won the 1974 David di Donatello award for Best Actress.

Vitti played a key part in one of vignettes in Luis Buñuel's The Phantom of Liberty (1974).^[21] She did two films with Claudia Cardinale, The Immortal Bachelor (1975)^[22] and Blonde in Black Leather (1975).^[20][23]

She was in Duck in Orange Sauce (1975),^[24] Mimì Bluette... fiore del mio giardino (1976),^[20] Basta che non si sappia in giro!.. (1977), L'altra metà del cielo (1977), State Reasons (1978), Il cilindro (1978, for television), Per vivere meglio, divertitevi con noi (1978), Amori miei (1978),^[25] and Tigers in Lipstick (1979) (with Ursula Andress).

Vitti's second English-language film was An Almost Perfect Affair (1979), directed by Michael Ritchie and co-starring Keith Carradine, which was set during the Cannes Film Festival.^[26] 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.^[27] 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.^[28]

Later career

Vitti in 1990

Vitti reunited with Antonioni in The Mystery of Oberwald (Il mistero di Oberwald, 1980).^[27] She followed it with I Don't Understand You Anymore (1980), Camera d'albergo (1981), Tango of Jealousy (1981), I Know That You Know That I Know (1982) with Sordi, Scusa se è poco (1982), Flirt (1983), and Francesca è mia (1986). She also co-wrote the last two films. In 1984, France awarded her the Order of Arts and Letters. French Culture Minister Jack Lang praised her for helping spur a renewal of Italian films: "We need Italian cinema to find its health again so that French cinema will not remain an island in the middle of other European countries," Lang said.^[29] On 26 January 1995, she was raised to the rank of Commander of that Order.^[30] By 1986, Vitti had returned to the theatre as an actress and teacher.

In 1989, Vitti tried writing and directing and created Scandalo Segreto (1990), in which she also starred alongside Elliott Gould.^[14] The film was unsuccessful and she then retired from cinema. During the 1990s, she did television work, acting in the television miniseries Ma tu mi vuoi bene? (1992).^[31]

In 1993, Vitti was awarded the Festival Tribute at the Créteil International Women's Film Festival in France.^[32]