‘Queen of Italian Cinema’ Monica Vitti Dies at 90

Italian iconic actress Monica Vitti died at the age of 90, the culture ministry revealed on Wednesday.

"Goodbye Monica Vitti, goodbye queen of Italian cinema. Today is a truly sad day, we have lost a great artist and a great Italian," Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said in a statement.

Former Italian culture minister Walter Veltroni said he had been asked to do so by Roberto Russo, Vitti's husband, and expressed his "pain, affection and regret".

Vitti, whose real name was Maria Luisa Ceciarelli, was best known for her starring roles in films by Michelangelo Antonioni.

She shot to international fame with the 1960 drama "L'Avventura" ("The Adventure") in which she plays a tormented woman who dallies with the lover of her missing friend.

Born in Rome on November 3, 1931, the iconic actress discovered her great passion and love for theatre during World War II, when she entertained her family with puppets to relieve boredom.

"As the bombs fell, when we had to take refuge in the shelters, my little brother and I would improvise little plays to entertain those around us," she would recount years later.

After graduating from Rome's National Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1953, she began her career in the theatre, where she stood out for her comic talent.

Later on, she was spotted by Antonioni, with whom she quickly developed an artistic and sentimental relationship.

"I was lucky enough to start my career with a man of great talent", but who was also "spiritual, full of life and enthusiasm", Vitti said in an interview on Italian television in 1982.

The actress, who had been suffering from a degenerative disease, had withdrawn from public life in recent years.