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.

Known For

Fernando's Mother

À ma sœur !

Regina

Novecento

Suora guardiana

La felicità non costa niente

Emilia, the Servant

Teorema

Anna Fossati

Ecologia del delitto

The Wife from Bath

I racconti di Canterbury

Usuraia

Raul - Diritto di uccidere

Mildred Harrington

Il rosso segno della follia

Virginia Capacelli

La Nuit de Varennes

Madame Hanska

Loin de Manhattan

Lidia Corradi

Mamma Ebe

Teresa

Vizi privati, pubbliche virtù

Jacqueline

La nuit, tous les chats sont gris

Esther Imbriani

Allonsanfàn

Hortense

Paulina s'en va

Aida

Il Grande Cocomero

Mme Carrabo

Un papillon sur l'épaule

direttrice

Tutta colpa del paradiso

Laura

Mario, Maria e Mario

Teresa

Era notte a Roma

Laura

Viaggio con Anita

Giuseppa

Marianna Ucrìa

Léonore

La Femme aux bottes rouges

Felicia

Le Gang

Sister Valida

La ribelle

Donna

Orgia

Presidente Del Tribunale

Fratella e Sorello

Una delle ragazze del coro

I magi randagi

Keli

Noyade interdite

Male Tourist (segment "La Terra vista dalla Luna")

Le streghe

Laura

Caldo soffocante

Milena

I cammelli

Jocasta's Maid (uncredited)

Edipo re

Desdemona

Capriccio all'italiana

Elle-même

Pier Paolo Pasolini : vivre et encore plus

Irina

Il gabbiano

Irina (archive footage) (uncredited)

Marx può aspettare

Self

Wie de Waarheid Zegt Moet Dood

La donna con la rosa blu

Le rose blu

Brunelda

Klassenverhältnisse

Madre Superiora

Renzo e Lucia

Dottoressa Trebbi

Un eroe borghese

Judge

The Protagonists

Fermate il mondo... voglio scendere!

Lardy

Jane B. par Agnès V.

Carlotta Batticelli

Retenez-moi... ou je fais un malheur !

The Painter

Labbra rosse

Catherine de Medicis

Dames galantes

Olympia

Le Champignon des Carpathes

Clara

Ritorno

Self (archive footage)

La passione di Laura

Self (archive footage)

Les Plages d'Agnès

Pavoncella

Gli astronomi

Clio

Ars amandi

Interviewee

Pasolini e l'umiliazione segreta di Chaucer

Beatrice

Con gli occhi chiusi

Jolanda

Caramelle da uno sconosciuto

Franco's Mother

Nel nome del padre

Tisa Borghi

Fatti di gente perbene

Self

Io sono Anna Magnani

Rita Zigai

Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina

Calogera

Einzelzimmer

un turista

La Terra vista dalla Luna

Sonia, the 'Diva' (segment "La ricotta")

Ro.Go.Pa.G.

Desdemona

Che cosa sono le nuvole

Self

Il mondo di notte numero 3

Herself

Pasolini, el poeta en la playa

Rosalia Scuderi

La cugina

Sister

A Man Called Sledge

La signora Bondi

Il piccolo Archimede

Contessa Celi Sanguineti

Il quaderno della spesa

Laura

La dolce vita

Giovanna la Pazza

Sepolta viva

Betty

La banda J. & S. Cronaca criminale del Far West

RARA

Teresa Manzoni Borri

Il diario di Matilde Manzoni

Self

Abicinema

Self

Maresco / Pasolini

Mademoiselle von Planta

Jenatsch

La cantante annoiata (no acreditado)

Noi siamo le colonne

Mme Poli

Venise en hiver

Passenger coach

L'ultimo giorno di scuola prima delle vacanze di Natale