When
Wed 25 May 2022
In her first English-speaking role, Monica Vitti stars as the world’s grooviest (and deadliest) female agent.
Joseph Losey brings a psychedelic flair to this send up of the spy genre – adapted from a popular British comic strip – with Terence Stamp as Modesty’s colourful sidekick and Dirk Bogarde as a debonair villain. Wittily indulgent in its playful intertextuality and pop extravagance, Losey’s film is also notable for reinforcing the director’s preoccupation with class. Featuring the iconic theme song and score composed by noted jazz musician Johnny Dankworth (creator of the music for the original The Avengers TV series).
Also screening on Wed 25 May
Program
Facing Modernity: A Tribute to Monica Vitti
Modesty Blaise (1966) – Wed 25 May, 7pm
Red Desert (1964) – Wed 25 May, 9.15pm
L’Eclisse (1962) – Wed 1 June, 7pm
Jealousy, Italian Style (1970)– Wed 1 Jun, 9.15pm
About the program
Monica Vitti is one of the most iconic performers of European modernist cinema. She is best known for her extraordinary four-film collaboration with lover Michelangelo Antonioni in the early 1960s. The cultural and artistic impact of these four films – which launched her career – has, in the international realm at least, tended to obscure her much longer reign as an almost-unrivalled star of Italian comedy.
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About Melbourne Cinémathèque
Australia's longest-running film society, Melbourne Cinémathèque screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.
Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven.
