Latest news with #MichelangeloAntonioni
Vogue
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Vogue
The Irresistible Glamour of Monica Vitti
It's one of the most indelible scenes in all of Italian cinema. In Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura (1960), the actress Monica Vitti walks pensively down the streets of Noto, Sicily, as more and more men gaze in her direction. Like much of the rest of the film—about a woman who goes missing on a remote Italian island—the moment has been endlessly scrutinized for its striking imagery and subtext. The White Lotus even replicated it, shot for shot, during Season 2, with Aubrey Plaza standing in for Vitti—a performer widely regarded in her native country as the 'Queen of Italian Cinema.' 'She was the type of artist and icon that comes once in a lifetime,' her nephew Giorgio Ceciarelli tells Vogue of Vitti, who died at the age of 90 in 2022. 'It's a proud legacy we always took for granted, but as we grew up, we realized she's a national treasure.' Monica Vitti and Michelangelo Antonioni at the Cannes Film Festival in 1960. Throughout her multi-decade career, Vitti staked a claim as one of Italy's most luminous and beloved cinematic exports, alongside the likes of Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Antonioni, and Federico Fellini—all of whom shot to global prominence in the 1950s. Born in Rome in 1931, Vitti was both a striking beauty and a true artist. She became Antonioni's muse (and, for a time, his lover), also working with him on such atmospheric classics as 1961's La Notte, with Mastroianni and the French actress Jeanne Moreau, and 1964's Il Deserto Rosso (Red Desert). The range of her talent is currently on display in Monica Vitti: La Modernista (June 6–19), a 14-film series at Film at Lincoln Center co-organized with the storied Italian film house Cinecittà. It marks Vitti's first-ever American retrospective. 'She transcends time,' says Manuela Cacciamani, CEO of Cinecittà. 'She is truly modern because you can't pin her down to a fixed, predictable—even if beautiful—type; Vitti instead represents change. And this applies not just to her films, but to her way of being a woman. In this sense, she embodied the changes of an entire country and remains relevant across genres and decades.' Vitti's legacy as a fashion icon may be just as robust as her impact on cinema. A 1966 profile in American Vogue described her much-mimicked, intriguingly 'international' mien, characterized by a 'definite, wiry quality which could be American, but a pink-and-white complexion and clear amber eyes which look as though English mists and Devonshire cream have been at work. On the other hand, that artfully disarranged hair'—a point of reference even now—'and a smart Italian cachet could only come out of post–World War II Rome.'
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Germany's Komplizen Boards Michelangelo Antonioni Swan Song ‘Technically Sweet' in Co-Production with ‘Senna's Gullane and Italy's Vivo Film (EXCLUSIVE)
Germany's Komplizen has boarded 'Technically Sweet,' a drama based on the last screenplay by the late and legendary Michelangelo Antonioni ('Blowup'), which Brazil's Gullane Filmes ('Senna') and Italy's Vivo Film ('Le Quattro Volte') have been developing. 'We are committed to making a significant German contribution to the project,' said Komplizen's Jonas Dornbach, Janine Jackowski and Maren Ade, who expressed their delight at joining the project. More from Variety Jeremy Irons, Vanessa Redgrave and Michael York Join Animated Sci-Fi Adventure 'The Crystal Planet,' Sold by Sola Media (EXCLUSIVE) Cannes' Marché du Film Announces Brazil Country of Honor Program With Presence of Minister of Culture, Focus on Co-Production and Funding Mubi Signs Major Three-Year Co-Production, Financing and Distribution Pact With Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli's Our Films (EXCLUSIVE) The film is to be directed by Brazil's André Ristum, the son of Antonioni's A.D. Jirges Ristum, who died before he could take over the project that the maestro had entrusted to him. Antonioni's widow, Enrica Antonioni, is an associate producer. 'Technically Sweet' follows a man in his forties whose sudden trip to Sardinia compels him to reevaluate his life. He navigates tense real estate dealings, grows entangled with a girl he can't quite understand and forges a deep connection with a boy who draws him in. As unexpected events unfold, he slips further from the path he once followed. After a personal setback, he heads into the Amazon, where confronting the forces of nature alters the course of his life. 'The idea is to shoot it in Sardinia and Brazil's Amazon,' Fabiano Gullane told Variety while in Madrid with his brother Caio Gullane for the Premios Platino awards event, adding that the company aims to make three movies and three series a year. 'Brazil has a mature audiovisual industry and it is now bolstered by the activity of the streamers,' he said, reveling in the fact that Brazil is the Country of Honor at this year's Cannes Marché du Film. Among Guallane's upcoming projects is the sequel to its animated musical feature 'Noah's Ark,' a co-production with India's Symbiosys Entertainment ('Ant Man,' 'Wolverine') and Walter Salles' Videofilmes (behind Oscar-winning 'I'm Still Here'). Edward Noeltner's LA-based CMG is an associate producer and has sold 'Noah's Ark' to 72 countries. 'This is the biggest animation project to come out of Brazil,' the Gullanes declared. In the sequel, the ark is now on dry land and the stowaway rats, Vini and Tito alongside female rat Nina, visit the other animals who have disembarked. They will perform songs by Vinícius de Moraes that were not used in the first film. Also in development is 'New Cancun' with Sandra Kogut 'Campo Grande') attached to direct and Sandra Casé ('The Second Mother') to star. The co-production with Meltem Films (France), Globo Filmes and Telecine follows 65-year-old Madá who has vowed to bury a keepsake at a river's source if her surrogate daughter Vanessa's risky pregnancy succeeds. When they arrive, the site has been overtaken by New Cancun, a smart city project led by Madá's former boss. Blocked from the river, Madá is forced to confront both a changing landscape and long-buried wounds. Currently in production is drama 'School Without Walls' by Cao Hamburger ('The Year My Parents Went on Vacation'), a co-production with Portugal's Ukbar Filmes, France's Playtime and Brazil's Globo Filmes. The drama is based on the true story of Braz Nogueira, an educator who becomes principal of a public school in Heliópolis, one of Brazil's largest slums. Faced with daily violence, disengaged teachers and government neglect, he confronts the chaos with empathy and resolve. Through an innovative pilot project, he unites students, teachers and community leaders—transforming the school and the neighborhood it serves. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
Los Angeles Times
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Review: A master sensualist returns with an alluring star and not much else in ‘Parthenope'
A softer Paolo Sorrentino ('The Great Beauty') is still a fertile imagemaker. That means a willing viewer can coast through much of the Italian writer-director's new film, 'Parthenope,' on an enigmatic bliss-out of Neapolitan beauty (both its people and places) and languid charm. The rest of the time, though, things are pretty but unfocused, like dreams that are half-remembered, not tangible enough to incur real meaning. The movie is built on the drifting life of a smart, stunningly beautiful and unfulfilled woman. But 'Parthenope' shouldn't have to strain as hard as it does — it plays like a fragrance ad. That qualifies as a disappointment for a filmmaker whose sensualist impulses are God-tier. Sometimes, his eccentric, loose storytelling style can dampen the impact of the rarefied emotions he's after. And with his overlong 'Parthenope,' the mild suppressing of most of his Fellini-esque impulses in favor of a sexy Michelangelo Antonioni aura yields only scattershot results. Birthed in the sea of Naples, named for the mythic siren but first made real to us as an 18-year-old bikini goddess emerging from the shimmering water, Parthenope (Celeste Dalla Porta) is, despite her appearance, at odds with the power of her beauty. Carrying an air of winking disruption — the gardener gets a robe-dropping free show — and also a bemused circumspection, she swans around under the summer sun like a bright, shiny, cigarette-smoking seductress, causing rowing teams to stop and stare (so much less lethal than what real sirens did). She also enjoys a playfully flirtatious (and in one case, eye-opening) relationship with the attractive young men around her. And Naples offers plenty of those. But Parthenope also knows how to gently, and with a teasing smile, push back at anyone's preconceived notions about who she is, and what she is or isn't thinking. A devoted reader and ambitious student, she revels in the depressive stories of John Cheever, who even makes a guest appearance as a tourist-ing acquaintance (played by Gary Oldman), giving gin-soaked pontifications on youth's transience. At her university, meanwhile, Parthenope impresses her jaded anthropology professor (Silvio Orlando) with the openness of her curiosity. The academic career she craves, however, doesn't stop her from exploring what's out there, and Sorrentino's menu of experiences for her covers a lot of thematic ground: a mysterious encounter with a disfigured acting guru, a night picnic with a wealthy admirer who hovers in a helicopter, an affair with a folk hero who connects her to the city's poor masses, a personal tragedy that reminds her of life's fragility. In perhaps the most outrageous detour, she visits a carnally philosophical bishop (Peppe Lanzetta). Even the preserved blood of Naples' patron saint San Gennaro is susceptible to her charms. Her transfixing allure seems to draw every oddity and incident, but as the years pass, there's also a fixity to her resolve. That's also the problem with Sorrentino's approach. Is he truly interested in the depths of his creation, or just the surface pleasures of a scenario that makes a few points here and there about beauty's eternal appeal? All while his admittedly gorgeous leading lady plays a cryptic symbol? One admirable reality to this unfortunately superficial adventure is how steady Dalla Porta is. She meets Sorrentino's demanding direction with a game nonchalance — so much staring at the lens! It's no mere cover-model performance inside the high gloss of Daria d'Antonia's cinematography. And she's asking the questions the movie wants asked. But without a character that we feel connected to, even Parthenope's great beauty, meant to suggest Naples itself, qualifies as an overburdened resource.
