Modesty blaise monica vitti biography

Losey failed to satisfy studio box office expectations, though the film became a cult phenomenon on college campuses. The characters in the film are antisex, and their essential heavy-heartedness is reinforced by the casting of Monica Vitti and Terence Stamp. Vitti carries her existential despair into this film, and makes the most plodding of superspies Hirsch asks rhetorically: "[D]id Losey use her deliberately, to undercut the pop thrust of the material Hirsch questions the choice of Terence Stamp to play opposite of Vitti, an actor praised for his work in Billy Budd and Teorema :.

Stamp is trained in an entirely different kind of film. When Vitti and Stamp, both so serious and downbeat, are made to sing and dance, the results are embarrassing rather than comic Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item.

Film by Joseph Losey. Theatrical release poster by Bob Peak. Evan Jones Harold Pinter uncredited. Peter O'Donnell Stanley Dubens. Release date. Running time. Plot [ edit ]. Cast [ edit ]. Monica Vitti as Modesty Blaisea criminal mastermind with a love—hate relationship with the British Secret Servicewho occasionally employ her and grant her immunity due to her immense talents Terence Stamp as Willie GarvinModesty's loyal Cockney sidekick with whom she has a " will they or won't they" relationship that ends in mutual possibly sarcastic marriage proposals.

Their relationship differs from the source material, where it is purely platonic. Dirk Bogarde as Gabriel, another criminal mastermind and Modesty's equal, defined by camp mannerisms and a sensitivity to violence in spite of his ruthlessness Harry Andrews as Sir Gerald Tarrant, the chief of the British Secret Service who has a begrudging respect for Modesty and acts as her liaison to the government Michael Craig as Paul Hagen, a straight-laced agent of the British Secret Service and former lover of Modesty's.

He is an original character created for the film. Clive Revill as McWhirter and Sheik Abu Tahir; the former is Gabriel's loyal and dogged Scottish accountant, and the latter is the once-deposed ruler of a small Middle Eastern kingdom and the informal foster father of Modesty, whom he calls his "son". The latter modesty blaise monica vitti biography takes the role of Modesty's mentor "Lob" from the original comics, and is otherwise an original character.

Alexander Knox as the Minister, an anxious government bureaucrat tasked with protecting the Sheikh's diamonds, a task is largely unsuited to and leaves to his subordinates Rossella Falk credited as Rosella Falk as Mrs Clara Fothergill, Gabriel's Amazonian bodyguard and chief of security, a psychopath who enjoys killing people to cure her boredom.

She is loosely based on the more tough, muscular and thuggish character of the same name in O'Donnell's source novel. She becomes embroiled in her former lover's schemes due to her employer's connections to Gabriel. She is an original character created for the film. Production [ edit ]. Comparison to source material [ edit ]. Novelisation [ edit ].

Critical reception [ edit ]. Box office [ edit ]. Critical response [ edit ]. Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema. Rowman and Littlefield. Florence Daily News. Rosenfield, Paul. Los Angeles Times 26 August m1. Buckley, Tom. Adams Sloan, Robin. Detroit Free Press 16 April 11B. The Globe and Mail. Ordre des arts et lettres ". Archives Nationales in French.

British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 19 April Corriere della sera in Italian. Retrieved 30 May The Times. ISSN Retrieved 4 January Further reading [ edit ]. External links [ edit ]. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Monica Vitti. Awards for Monica Vitti. David di Donatello Award for Best Actress. Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

Nastro d'Argento Award for Best Actress. Silver Shell for Best Actress. Authority control databases. Trove Deutsche Biographie Deutsche Synchronkartei. Hidden categories: CS1 Italian-language sources it CS1 French-language sources fr Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Articles needing additional references from February All articles needing additional references Use dmy dates from February Articles with hCards All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from February Articles with unsourced statements from May Commons category link from Wikidata.

Toggle the table of contents. Monica Vitti. Antonioni became Vitti's mentor, lover, father figure, and director, guiding her in various aspects of her life. However, their work together was not without its challenges. Antonioni's commitment to his art often meant that Vitti had to put her needs aside, creating a strain on their relationship.

Vitti's breakthrough came in with Antonioni's film "L'Avventura," which brought her immense fame and critical acclaim. Her performances in the subsequent films of Antonioni's "alienation trilogy," including "La Notte" and "Eclipse"solidified her status as an international star. However, after the completion of their final film together, "Red Desert"Antonioni left Vitti for British actress Vanessa Redgrave.

The betrayal devastated Vitti, particularly because it undermined her professional relationship with Antonioni. Despite her subsequent success in other films, Vitti could never surpass the heights she had reached alongside Antonioni.

Modesty blaise monica vitti biography

In the years that followed, Vitti continued to work in the film industry, playing a variety of roles with varying success. It was loosely based upon the popular comic strip Modesty Blaise by Peter O'Donnell, who wrote the original story and scenario upon which Evan Jones based his screenplay. The Bond Connection The film was released at the height of two cinematic trends: the popularity of James Bond had spawned a number of similarly themed films, and many of these films rather than being serious spy adventures were instead created as parodies of Bond and his genre.

Director Joseph Losey and the screenwriters chose to follow the latter approach, by making Modesty Blaise a campy, sometimes surrealistic comedy-adventure. The movie's poster was designed by Bob Peak, who had previously created the illustration for US Cosmopolitan's debut publication of Ian Fleming's short story " Quantum of Solace " in May The original comic strips have been republished in recent years by Titan Books, who also re-release the classic James Bond strips.

Production Notes O'Donnell's original screenplay went through a large number of rewrites by other people, and he often later complained that the finished movie retained only one line of his original dialogue O'Donnell states this in some of his introductions to reprints of his comic strip by Titan Books. As a result, although the basic plotline and characters coincide with the comic strip, many changes are made.

Some are cosmetic—Vitti appears as a blonde for most of the film except for one sequence in which she actually dresses up like a real-life version of the comic strip character. Likewise, Stamp initially appears in a blond wig and subsequently reverts to his natural dark hair colour. Other changes are more profound.