Roberto Russo, director, screenwriter, and photographer, husband of Monica Vitti, has died in Rome at the age of 77.

Roberto Russo, director, screenwriter, and photographer, also known to the general public for his long and private relationship with Monica Vitti, died today in a nursing home in Rome at the age of 77. The funeral will be held on Tuesday, September 23, at 10:30 a.m., in the Church of the Artists in Piazza del Popolo, the day he would have turned 78.

A Roman, a reserved and quiet artist, Roberto Russo began his career in the art world as a photographer before moving behind the camera. His directorial debut, in 1983, was a major success: “Flirt,” starring Monica Vitti, Jean-Luc Bideau, and Alessandro Haber. An intimate and visionary story, the protagonist finds herself confronting her husband’s imaginary lover. The film earned Vitti the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin International Film Festival. At the same time, Russo won the David di Donatello Award for Best New Director. He returned to film in 1986 with “Francesca è mia,” again starring Vitti and with Vincenzo Cerami co-writing the screenplay. For both films, he chose to entrust the music to two great names in Italian songwriting: Francesco De Gregori, who composed the mini-LP “La donna cannone” for “Flirt,” and Tullio De Piscopo for “Francesca è mia.”

Russo met Monica Vitti at a very young age, on the set of Carlo Di Palma’s “Teresa la ladra” (Thief Teresa): he was 25, she was 41. Their love story lasted fifty years, always kept out of the spotlight. They married on September 28, 2000, in Rome’s Capitoline Hill, after 17 years of engagement. In his final years, marked by Vitti’s degenerative disease, Russo withdrew into total secrecy, becoming the silent guardian of their intimacy. No image of the ailing actress has ever been leaked, nor has there been any statement or public outcry. After the actress’s passing on February 2, 2022, Russo gradually withdrew from public life. Having been ill since 2023, he had spent the last few months hospitalised in a Roman health facility.