Laura Betti
Acting • Born 1927-05-01 – Died 2004-07-31
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.
Filmography
87 credits
Fat Girl
Movie • 2001
Fernando's Mother
1900
Movie • 1976
Regina
Happiness Costs Nothing
Movie • 2003
Suora guardiana
Theorem
Movie • 1968
Emilia, the Servant
A Bay of Blood
Movie • 1971
Anna Fossati
The Canterbury Tales
Movie • 1972
The Wife from Bath
Raul - Right to Kill
Movie • 2005
Usuraia
Hatchet for the Honeymoon
Movie • 1970
Mildred Harrington
That Night of Varennes
Movie • 1982
Virginia Capacelli
Far from Manhattan
Movie • 1982
Madame Hanska
Mother Ebe
Movie • 1985
Lidia Corradi
Private Vices, Public Virtues
Movie • 1976
Teresa
At Night All Cats Are Crazy
Movie • 1977
Jacqueline
Allonsanfan
Movie • 1974
Esther Imbriani
Paulina Is Leaving
Movie • 1969
Hortense
The Great Pumpkin
Movie • 1993
Aida
Butterfly on the Shoulder
Movie • 1978
Mme Carrabo
Blame it on Paradise
Movie • 1985
direttrice
Mario, Maria and Mario
Movie • 1993
Laura
Escape by Night
Movie • 1960
Teresa
Lovers and Liars
Movie • 1979
Laura
Marianna Ucrìa
Movie • 1997
Giuseppa
The Woman with Red Boots
Movie • 1974
Léonore
The Gang
Movie • 1977
Felicia
La ribelle
Movie • 1993
Sister Valida
Orgy
Movie • 1968
Donna
Fratella e Sorello
Movie • 2005
Presidente Del Tribunale
We Free Kings
Movie • 1996
Una delle ragazze del coro
Widow's Walk
Movie • 1987
Keli
The Witches
Movie • 1967
Male Tourist (segment "La Terra vista dalla Luna")
Suffocating Heat
Movie • 1991
Laura
I cammelli
Movie • 1988
Milena
Oedipus Rex
Movie • 1967
Jocasta's Maid (uncredited)
Caprice Italian Style
Movie • 1968
Desdemona
Pier Paolo Pasolini : vivre et encore plus
Movie • 1976
Elle-même
The Seagull
Movie • 1977
Irina
Marx Can Wait
Movie • 2021
Irina (archive footage) (uncredited)
Whoever Says the Truth Shall Die
Movie • 1981
Self
Le rose blu
Movie • 1990
La donna con la rosa blu
Class Relations
Movie • 1984
Brunelda
Renzo e Lucia
Movie • 2004
Madre Superiora
Un eroe borghese
Movie • 1995
Dottoressa Trebbi
The Protagonists
Movie • 1999
Judge
Stop the World... I Want to Get Off!
Movie • 1970
Jane B. by Agnès V.
Movie • 1988
Lardy
The Defective Detective
Movie • 1984
Carlotta Batticelli
Red Lips
Movie • 1960
The Painter
Gallant Ladies
Movie • 1990
Catherine de Medicis
The Carpathian Mushroom
Movie • 1990
Olympia
The Return
Movie • 1973
Clara
Laura's Passion
Movie • 2011
Self (archive footage)
The Beaches of Agnès
Movie • 2008
Self (archive footage)
Gli astronomi
Movie • 2003
Pavoncella
Art of Love
Movie • 1983
Clio
Pasolini and the Secret Humiliation of Chaucer
Movie • 2006
Interviewee
With Closed Eyes
Movie • 1994
Beatrice
Sweets from a Stranger
Movie • 1987
Jolanda
In the Name of the Father
Movie • 1971
Franco's Mother
The Murri Affair
Movie • 1974
Tisa Borghi
My Name Is Anna Magnani
Movie • 1980
Self
Slap the Monster on Page One
Movie • 1972
Rita Zigai
Einzelzimmer
Movie • 1979
Calogera
The Earth As Seen from the Moon
Movie • 1967
un turista
Ro.Go.Pa.G.
Movie • 1963
Sonia, the 'Diva' (segment "La ricotta")
What Are the Clouds?
Movie • 1968
Desdemona
Ecco
Movie • 1963
Self
Pasolini, el poeta en la playa
Movie • 2000
Herself
The Cousin
Movie • 1974
Rosalia Scuderi
A Man Called Sledge
Movie • 1970
Sister
The Little Archimedes
Movie • 1980
La signora Bondi
Household Accounts
Movie • 2003
Contessa Celi Sanguineti
La Dolce Vita
Movie • 1960
Laura
Woman Buried Alive
Movie • 1973
Giovanna la Pazza
Sonny and Jed
Movie • 1972
Betty
RARA
Movie • 1969
Il diario di Matilde Manzoni
Movie • 2002
Teresa Manzoni Borri
Abicinema
Movie • 1975
Self
Maresco / Pasolini
Movie • 2021
Self
Jenatsch
Movie • 1987
Mademoiselle von Planta
Noi siamo le colonne
Movie • 1956
La cantante annoiata (no acreditado)
Venise en hiver
Movie • 1982
Mme Poli
The Last Day of School Before Christmas
Movie • 1975
Passenger coach
The Word
TV • 1978
Maria
The Charterhouse of Parma
TV • 1982
The Vivandière
Discorama
TV • 1959
Self
The Wings of the Dove
TV • 1981
Zia Maud
Cinecittà Cinecittà
TV • 1985
Caterina Elisabetta Magrevich