Monica Vitti: A Pop Diva
Pubblicato in: Culture, Fashion and Society’s Notebooks, a cura di Roy Menarini, pp. 1-16. Bruno Mondadori, Milano-Torino 2016.
In an interview published in “Bianco e Nero” magazine, dedicated to women in film, Monica Vitti states: «Well, [...] how many times, the screenwriters kept telling me: “Monica, how can I write stories for you? You are a woman, and what does a woman do? She does not go to war, she does not work. What can I do? I can only write a love story. You make children, you suffer, he leaves, you’re hopeless”». Such a statement, pronounced by the backbone of the Italian comedy, the writers, explains quite well the types of roles reserved for women in the golden age of Italian cinema. Monica Vitti, a successful actress who at the time had already established herself as a comic performer, acknowledges her objective weakness in the film industry balance of powers, together with the misogyny of Italian cinema.