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

• 2021Marx Can Wait — Irina (archive footage) (uncredited)
• 2006Pasolini and the Secret Humiliation of Chaucer — Interviewee
• 2005Fratella e Sorello — Presidente Del Tribunale
• 2005Raul - Right to Kill — Usuraia
• 2004Renzo e Lucia — Madre Superiora
• Renzo e Lucia — Madre Superiora
• 2003Gli astronomi — Pavoncella
• 2003Happiness Costs Nothing — Suora guardiana
• 2003Household Accounts — Contessa Celi Sanguineti
• 2002Il diario di Matilde Manzoni — Teresa Manzoni Borri
• 2002Pier Paolo Pasolini and the Reason of a Dream — Director
• 2001Fat Girl — Fernando's Mother
• 2000Film — Writer
• 1999The Protagonists — Judge
• 1997Marianna Ucrìa — Giuseppa
• 1996We Free Kings — Una delle ragazze del coro
• 1995Un eroe borghese — dott.ssa Trebbi
• 1994With Closed Eyes — Beatrice
• 1993La ribelle — Sister Valida
• 1993Mario, Maria and Mario — Laura
• 1993The Great Pumpkin — Aida
• 1991Suffocating Heat — Laura
• 1990Gallant Ladies — Catherine de Medicis
• 1990Le rose blu — La donna con la rosa blu
• 1990The Carpathian Mushroom — Olympia
• 1988I cammelli — Milena
• 1988Jane B. by Agnès V. — Lardy
• 1987Jenatsch — Mademoiselle von Planta
• 1987Sweets from a Stranger — Jolanda
• 1987Widow's Walk — Keli
• 1985Blame it on Paradise — direttrice
• Cinecittà Cinecittà — Caterina Elisabetta Magrevich
• 1985Mother Ebe — Lidia Corradi
• 1984Class Relations — Brunelda
• 1984The Defective Detective — Carlotta Batticelli
• 1983Art of Love — Clio
• 1982Far from Manhattan — Madame Hanska
• 1982That Night of Varennes — Virginia Capacelli
• The Charterhouse of Parma — The Vivandière
• 1982Venise en hiver — Mme Poli
• The Wings of the Dove — Zia Maud
• 1980The Little Archimedes — La signora Bondi
• 1979Einzelzimmer — Calogera
• 1979Lovers and Liars — Laura
• 1978Butterfly on the Shoulder — Mme Carrabo
• The Word — Maria
• 1977At Night All Cats Are Crazy — Jacqueline
• 1977The Gang — Felicia
• 1977The Seagull — Irina
• 19761900 — Regina
• 1976Il silenzio è complicità — Director
• 1976Pier Paolo Pasolini : vivre et encore plus — Elle-même
• 1976Private Vices, Public Virtues — Teresa
• 1975The Last Day of School Before Christmas — Passenger coach
• 1974Allonsanfan — Esther Imbriani
• 1974The Cousin — Rosalia Scuderi
• 1974The Murri Affair — Tisa Borghi
• 1974The Woman with Red Boots — Léonore
• 1973The Return — Clara
• 1973Woman Buried Alive — Giovanna la Pazza
• 1972Slap the Monster on Page One — Rita Zigai
• 1972Sonny and Jed — Betty
• 1972The Canterbury Tales — The Wife from Bath
• 1971A Bay of Blood — Anna Fossati, Additional Writing
• 1971In the Name of the Father — Franco's Mother
• 1970A Man Called Sledge — Sister
• 1970Hatchet for the Honeymoon — Mildred Harrington, Screenplay
• 1970Stop the World... I Want to Get Off! — Writer
• 1969Paulina Is Leaving — Hortense
• 1969RARA
• 1968Caprice Italian Style — Desdemona
• 1968Orgy — Donna
• 1968Theorem — Emilia, the Servant
• 1968What Are the Clouds? — Desdemona
• 1967Oedipus Rex — Jocasta's Maid (uncredited)
• 1967The Earth As Seen from the Moon — un turista
• 1967The Witches — Male Tourist (segment "La Terra vista dalla Luna")
• 1963La ricotta
• 1963Ro.Go.Pa.G. — Sonia, the 'Diva' (segment "La ricotta")
• 1960Escape by Night — Teresa
• 1960La Dolce Vita — Laura
• 1960Red Lips — The Painter
• 1956Noi siamo le colonne — La cantante annoiata (no acreditado)

Appearances as themselves (9)

• 2021Maresco / Pasolini — Self
• 2011Laura's Passion — Self (archive footage)
• 2008The Beaches of Agnès — Self (archive footage)
• 2000Pasolini, el poeta en la playa — Herself
• 1981Whoever Says the Truth Shall Die — Self
• 1980My Name Is Anna Magnani — Self
• 1975ABCinema — Self
• 1963Ecco — Self
• Discorama — Self