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.
as Irina (archive footage) (uncredited)
as Self
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Interviewee
as Presidente Del Tribunale
as Usuraia
as Madre Superiora
as Madre Superiora(2 eps)
as Contessa Celi Sanguineti
as Suora guardiana
as Pavoncella
as Teresa Manzoni Borri
as Fernando's Mother
as Herself
as Judge
as Giuseppa
as Una delle ragazze del coro
as dott.ssa Trebbi
as Beatrice
as Laura
as Sister Valida
as Aida
as Laura
as Catherine de Medicis
as Olympia
as La donna con la rosa blu
as Milena
as Lardy
as Keli
as Mademoiselle von Planta
as Jolanda
as direttrice
as Lidia Corradi
as Caterina Elisabetta Magrevich(1 ep)
as Brunelda
as Carlotta Batticelli
as Clio
as Mme Poli
as The Vivandière(6 eps)
as Virginia Capacelli
as Madame Hanska
as Zia Maud(3 eps)
as Self
as La signora Bondi
as Calogera
as Laura
as Maria(4 eps)
as Mme Carrabo
as Jacqueline
as Irina
as Felicia
as Regina
as Teresa
as Elle-même
as Self
as Passenger coach
as Léonore
as Tisa Borghi
as Esther Imbriani
as Rosalia Scuderi
as Clara
as Giovanna la Pazza
as Rita Zigai
as The Wife from Bath
as Betty
as Franco's Mother
as Anna Fossati
as Sister
as Mildred Harrington
as Hortense
as Donna
as Emilia, the Servant
as Desdemona
as Desdemona
as Jocasta's Maid (uncredited)
as Male Tourist (segment "La Terra vista dalla Luna")
as un turista
as Self
as Sonia, the 'Diva' (segment "La ricotta")
as Teresa
as The Painter
as Laura
as Self(1 ep)
as La cantante annoiata (no acreditado)
