Abstract

This article examines the ways in which Monica Vitti entered the international imagination as an icon of style and glamour. It identifies the sources of this in her films with Antonioni, her identification with Italy at a moment in which the country was seen as modern and stylish, her international career (and especially the British film Modesty Blaise, J. Losey, 1966), and her distinctive engagement with her own image. A close analysis is conducted of her face and hair as well as her relationship with fashion. The international Vitti offered a range of facets that were not always highlighted in the Italian context and which led to her becoming a symbol of a particular sixties’ sensibility as well as presenting a distinctive, off-beat type of beauty that was not regarded as typically Italian