
Laura Betti
Biography
Laura Betti (née Trombetti; 1 May 1927 – 31 July 2004) was an Italian actress known particularly for her work with directors Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Bernardo Bertolucci. She had a long friendship with Pasolini and made a documentary about him in 2001. Betti became famous for portraying bizarre, grotesque, eccentric, unstable or maniacal roles, like Regina in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900, Anna the medium in Twitch of the Death Nerve, Giovanna la pazza in Woman Buried Alive, hysterical Rita Zigai in Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina, Therese in Private Vices, Public Virtues, Emilia the servant in Pier Paolo Pasolini's Teorema for which she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, and Mildred the protagonist's wife in Mario Bava's Hatchet for the Honeymoon. Born Laura Trombetti in Casalecchio di Reno, near Bologna, she grew up to be interested in singing. She first worked professionally in the arts as a jazz singer and moved to Rome. Betti made her film debut in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960). In 1963, she became a close friend of the poet and movie director Pier Paolo Pasolini. Under his direction, she proved a wonderful talent and played in seven of his films, including La ricotta (1963), Teorema (Theorem, 1968), his 1972 version of The Canterbury Tales, in which she played the Wife of Bath; and his controversial Salo (1975) ("120 Days of Sodom"). In 1976, Betti portrayed Regina, a cruel and eroto-maniacal fascist in Bernardo Bertolucci's Novecento (1900). She also played Miss Blandish in his Last Tango in Paris (1972), though her single scene was deleted. In 1973 she dubbed the voice of the Devil for the Italian version of William Friedkin's The Exorcist. From the 1960s, Betti dedicated much of her time to literature and politics. She became the muse for a number of leading political and literary figures in Italy and came to personify the revolutionary and Marxist era of 1970s Italy. In 2001, she made a documentary about Pasolini, Pier Paolo Pasolini e la ragione di un sogno. She also donated her papers related to their long friendship along with more than 1000 volumes and many documents connected to Pasolini to the archives of the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, thus creating the Centro Studi Archivio Pier Paolo Pasolini. This Centro, strongly wanted by Betti, owns also thousands of photograph and all the works of Pasolini: poetry, literature, cinema and journalism. After her death in 2004 her brother Sergio Trombetti has donated all the personal documents of her career to the Centro that has absorbed them under the name Fondo Laura Betti. Source: Article "Laura Betti" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Personal Info
Gender
Female
Birthday
1927-05-01
Place of Birth
Casalecchio di Reno, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Images


Cast
Fat Girl
20016.2 / 10
1900
19767.8 / 10
Happiness Costs Nothing
20033.6 / 10
Theorem
19687.1 / 10
A Bay of Blood
19716.6 / 10
The Canterbury Tales
19726.2 / 10
Raul - Right to Kill
20050.0 / 10
Hatchet for the Honeymoon
19706.5 / 10
The Night of Varennes
19826.8 / 10
Far from Manhattan
19827.6 / 10
Mother Ebe
19854.6 / 10
Private Vices, Public Virtues
19765.3 / 10
At Night All Cats Are Crazy
19775.5 / 10
Allonsanfan
19746.7 / 10
Paulina Is Leaving
19692.5 / 10
The Great Pumpkin
19936.7 / 10
Butterfly on the Shoulder
19786.0 / 10
Blame it on Paradise
19856.5 / 10
Mario, Maria and Mario
19935.7 / 10
Escape by Night
19606.9 / 10
Lovers and Liars
19794.1 / 10
Marianna Ucrìa
19976.5 / 10
The Woman with Red Boots
19745.7 / 10
The Gang
19776.2 / 10
La ribelle
19934.7 / 10
Orgy
19680.0 / 10
Fratella e sorello
20050.0 / 10
We Free Kings
19966.0 / 10
Widow's Walk
19875.3 / 10
The Witches
19676.1 / 10
Suffocating Heat
19910.0 / 10
I cammelli
19885.8 / 10
Oedipus Rex
19676.8 / 10
Caprice Italian Style
19686.2 / 10
Pier Paolo Pasolini : vivre et encore plus
19760.0 / 10
The Seagull
19776.0 / 10
Marx Can Wait
20217.3 / 10
Whoever Says the Truth Shall Die
19815.4 / 10
La Rabbia di Pasolini
20087.5 / 10
Le rose blu
19900.0 / 10
Class Relations
19846.8 / 10
Renzo e Lucia
20040.0 / 10
Un eroe borghese
19956.5 / 10
The Protagonists
19995.4 / 10
Stop the World... I Want to Get Off!
19705.5 / 10
Jane B. by Agnès V.
19886.8 / 10
The Defective Detective
19847.5 / 10
Red Lips
19600.0 / 10
Gallant Ladies
19903.3 / 10
The Carpathian Mushroom
19905.2 / 10
The Return
19730.0 / 10
Laura's Passion
20110.0 / 10
The Beaches of Agnès
20087.7 / 10
Gli astronomi
20030.0 / 10
The Art of Love
19834.8 / 10
Pasolini and the Secret Humiliation of Chaucer
20060.0 / 10
With Closed Eyes
19945.9 / 10
Sweets from a Stranger
19875.2 / 10
In the Name of the Father
19716.4 / 10
The Murri Affair
19746.6 / 10
My Name Is Anna Magnani
19808.0 / 10
Slap the Monster on Page One
19727.6 / 10
Einzelzimmer
19790.0 / 10
The Earth As Seen from the Moon
19678.2 / 10
Ro.Go.Pa.G.
19637.2 / 10
What Are the Clouds?
19688.5 / 10
Ecco
19635.0 / 10
Pasolini, el poeta en la playa
20005.7 / 10
The Cousin
19745.6 / 10
A Man Called Sledge
19706.1 / 10
The Little Archimedes
19797.0 / 10
Household Accounts
20030.0 / 10
La Dolce Vita
19608.1 / 10
Woman Buried Alive
19733.0 / 10
Sonny and Jed
19725.9 / 10
RARA
19694.5 / 10
Il diario di Matilde Manzoni
20020.0 / 10
Abicinema
19756.0 / 10
Maresco / Pasolini
20210.0 / 10
Jenatsch
19875.5 / 10
Noi siamo le colonne
19560.0 / 10
Venise en hiver
19821.0 / 10
The Last Day of School Before Christmas
19750.0 / 10
Crew
Stop the World... I Want to Get Off!
19705.5 / 10
Pier Paolo Pasolini and the Reason of a Dream
20026.0 / 10
Il silenzio è complicità
19760.0 / 10
Film
20009.0 / 10
A Bay of Blood
19716.6 / 10
Hatchet for the Honeymoon
19706.5 / 10