Abstract

The aim of this article is to study the Italian comedies in which Monica Vitti starred between the 1960s and the 1980s from a new point of view. In particular, it aims to reconstruct the actress’s professional attitude throughout her work in this genre – how she constructed her career and her image, her self-representation – in comparison with her public profile and within the framework of production culture studies. Combining the perspectives of production studies, discourse and content analysis, the study develops a methodological system to examine diverse materials, ranging from archival documents to publicity: reviews, articles about the actress, monographs, autobiographies, etc. Divided into some of its constituent elements (public discourse, professional strategies, roles defined by the production environment), Vitti’s comedic work reveals itself as a heuristically stratified object, marked simultaneously by contrasting thrusts and recurring elements. It is more elusive and complex than it appears at first glance