Francesca Bertini

Born Elena Seracini Vitiello in Prato, her mother was the unmarried Adelina di Venanzio Fratiglioni, who may have been an actress. Bertini was registered as Elena Taddei at an orphanage in 1892. Her mother married Arturo Vitiello in 1910. She took his family name. == Career ==

Bertini began performing on stages and at the age of seventeen she began to perform in the just-born Italian movie production. She had a major role in Salvatore Di Giacomo's melodramatic story Assunta Spina. She had made over 50 films by 1915 Fox Film Corporation in Hollywood offered to sign a contract with her, but she refused: she was married to the wealthy Swiss banker Paul Cartier and wanted to move with him to Switzerland. When her husband died, she moved back to Rome, where she would remain until her death. She stepped into sound movies as well, but in the meantime the Italian cinema had changed greatly (the period of Telefoni bianchi comedies) and entered into a period of crisis with fascism and censorship. It experienced a definite hiatus with World War II. ==Later years==

In 1974 Bernardo Bertolucci was able to convince her to emerge from her stubborn silence, accepting a role of a nun in his movie Novecento. She allowed herself to be interviewed in 1981 and this was adapted for a three part TV documentary in 1982. She died in Rome at the age of 93. ==Filmography==