VENI VITTI VICI
One of the last great “ill before I was born” names is finally dead. When Italian screen icon Monica Vitti had her first signs of memory loss, Ronald Reagan was still president. When she made her last public appearance in 2002, Peter Falk was still doing the occasional Columbo. When it was publicly revealed that her seclusion was the result of Alzheimer’s, Glen Campbell was still recording music. She out-Alzheimered them all, lasting over 20 if not 30 years since her diagnosis.
Now let’s remember what she couldn’t for an unfathomably long time. Monica Vitti found her passion to entertain at an early age, when puppeteering (no, not with Topo Gigio) to alleviate family boredom during WWII. A promising theatre career soon translated into cinema, with her acclaimed leading roles in Michelangelo Antonioni dramas such as L’Avventura making her a star. She later turned to comedies, often directed by Mario Monicelli, who astute-memoried deadpoolers may recall having jumped out of his hospital window rather than slowly die of cancer aged 95! Her death at 90 means points for three teams, with Dead By Dawn perhaps seeing good karma for his help with the new celeb photos.
Monica Vitti
3 November 1931 – 2 February 2022, aged 90
3 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀💀 5 POINTS)