With the death of Michelangelo Antonioni last summer, the time is ripe for revisiting the Italian films that made his name in the 1960s. One happy by-product of this is revisiting Monica Vitti, the spectacular flinty beauty who starred in L'Avventura, La Notte, The Eclipse and Red Desert. Unfortunately, Vitti, a major star with a long, varied career in Italy, is virtually unknown in America except for her work with Antonioni, an important but smallish part of her work that barely hints at her comedic gifts and her capacity for giving pleasure to audiences.
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