Bertini, Francesca (1888–1985)

Italian actress. Born Elena Seracini Vitiello in Florence, Italy, on April 11, 1888; died in 1985; daughter of a stage actress; married Paul Cartier (a Swiss count), in 1921.

A dark, fiery Neapolitan, Francesca Bertini made her film debut in La Dea del Mare in 1907. Her first Italian success was in Il Trovatore in 1910; her first international success was in the 1915 realist film Assunta Spina, directed by Gustavo Serena. Italy's first screen diva, Bertini was prominent in the early period of Italian cinema, influencing fashion the world over. Though she reputedly had signed a million-dollar contract with Fox in 1920, she retired from film when she married Count Paul Cartier in 1921 but returned sporadically, most notably appearing with a host of international stars in Bernardo Bertolucci's film 1900 in 1976. Her autobiography Il Resto non conta was published in 1969, and Giancalo Mignozzi's film The Last Diva, which documented her career, was released in 1983.

Her films include La Dea del Mare (1907), Il Trovatore (1910), Ernani (1911), Giulietta e Romeo (Romeo and Juliet, 1911), Tristano e Isota (Tristan and Isolde, 1911), Francesca da Rimini (1911), Re Lear (King Lear, 1911), Lorenzo il Magnifico (1911), Il Mercante di Venezia (1912), La Rosa di Tebe (1912), Idillio tragico (1912), La Gloria (1913), Terra promessa

(1913), La Madre (1913), Salome (1913), Eroismo d'Amore (1914), Assunta Spina (1915), La Signora dalle Camelie (Camille, 1915), La Perla del Cinema (1916), Fedora (1916), Odette (1916), Andreina (1917), La Tosca (1918), Frou-Frou (1918), Anima allegra (1918), La Donna nuda (1918), La Contesa Sarah (1919), Spiritismo (1919), Beatrice (1919), Anima selvaggia (1920), Marion (1921), La Giovinezza del Diavolo (1921), Conseulita (1922), Monte Carlo (1928), Odette (1928), Possession (1929), Dora (1943), A Sud Niente di Nuovo (1956), Novecento (1900, 1976).