Died 91 years old from Lea Massari, figure of Italian cinema and actress at Sergio Leone or Claude Sautet

Lea Massari, a major figure in Italian cinema, died on June 23 at the age of 91, the transalpine media announced. She had shot with the greatest filmmakers, from Sergio Leone to Claude Sautet via Michelangelo Antonioni or Henri Verneuil.

Coming from a wealthy environment, Anna-Maria Massatini takes the name of Lea in memory of her fiancé Leo, who died at the age of 22. She leaves Italy for Switzerland and studies architecture there. She becomes the assistant of the Piero Gherardi decorator and stood out by Mario Monicelli as she works on the setting of one of her films. He offers her the main female role in blood in the sun (1956).

Beastica

Revelation in Antonioni

Despite her lack of training as an actress, Lea Massari shows great talent for dramatic roles. She turns in front of the camera of Italian directors like Mauro Bolognini, Dino Risi (a difficult life), Sergio Leone (the Colossus of Rhodes) but it is the role of Anna, the disappeared of Avventura (1960) at Michelangelo Antonioni who reveals it to the general public.

Career in France

From the 1970s, Lea Massari went to the other side of the Alps. For her first French film, the rebellious of Alain Cavalier (1964), she shares the poster with Alain Delon which she will find in an Italian film in Valerio Zurlini, the Professor (1972).

She plays under the direction of Claude Sautet in the things of life in 1970 and caused a scandal by interpreting the role of an incestuous mother in the breath in the heart of Louis Malle (1971). But it remains particularly known for more popular films (the 7th target) where it seconds actors such as Lino Ventura.

Lea Massari is rarer in the 80s. Discreet, she continues the supporting roles in quality productions (fear on the city of Henri Verneuil) and keeps a predilection for dramatic roles. In the mid -1980s, she returned to Italy to play the theater two on a swing, the Caucasian chalk circle. His latest role in the cinema will remain Viaggio d'Amore with Omar Sharif, released in 1990.