Biography
Anna Maria Massetani better known as Lea Massari (30 June 1933 — 23 June 2025) was an Italian actress. When she was 22, she changed her name to Lea Massari after the death of her fiancé Leo. She studied architecture in Switzerland. Massari became a celebrity in art cinema for two roles, the missing girl Anna in Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura (1960), and as Clara, the mother of a sexually precocious 14-year-old boy named Laurent (Benoît Ferreux) in Louis Malle's Murmur of the Heart (1971). ...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Archaeology of a Set: Return to Lisca Bianca
2017
as Anna (archive footage) (uncredited)

Monica Vitti, une étoile dans la nuit
2017
as Self (archive footage)

Il était une fois Sergio Leone
2014
as Self

Journey of Love
1990
as Zaira
An older couple finally travels to the sea, reliving old memories along the way.
Una donna spezzata
1988
Una donna spezzata
1988
Writer

Secrets Secrets
1985
as Marta
Young terrorist Laura shoots both a judge and a comrade, and over time her violent act becomes a thread linking the lives and fates of several other w...

The Seventh Target
1984
as Nelly
Bastien Grimaldy, a man driven to heightened anxiety as the plot against him begins to take effect. Bastien's personal relationships give him enough c...

Return to Lisca Bianca Island
1983
as Anna (voice) (archive footage)
Twenty-three years after L'Avventura (1960), Michelangelo Antonioni returns to Lisca Bianca Island. The rarefied atmosphere of Anna's (Lea Massari's) ...

Sarah
1983
as Carla Angelli
An insurance investigator meets an attractive woman in a hotel on his way to check out the causes of a fire that destroyed a movie set.

La Flambeuse
1981
as Louise
A woman on the brink of middle age becomes bored and takes up playing cards. She becomes hooked on gambling and begins to neglect her husband and chil...

Le divorcement
1979
as Rosa
In this rambling comic tale about a man and a wife, with four children, who calmly announce to the children that they want to divorce one another, it ...

Christ Stopped at Eboli
1979
as Luisa Levi
In the fascist Italy of 1935, a painter trained as a doctor is exiled to a remote region near Eboli. Over time, he learns to appreciate the beauty and...

The Meetings of Anna
1978
as Anna's mother
On a trip across Western Europe to promote her newest release, filmmaker Anna encounters several individuals—familiar and otherwise—and attends to the...
Sale rêveur
1978
as Joséphe
A young man struggling with reality and dreams finds himself caught between his fantasies and the harshness of everyday life. As he drifts through sur...

Edipo Re
1977
as Iocasta

A Dog Called... Vengeance
1977
as Muriel
A political prisoner in a South American dictatorship escapes and is pursued throughout the country by a bloodthirsty dog.

Faces of Love
1977
as Cecilia
After 10 years separation from his wife, a film director (Jean-Louis Trintignant), imagines he can make up with her by giving her a part in his next f...

Violette & Francois
1977
as Cécile Levene
Violette and François are a couple with a child. As they cannot lead a good life with odd jobs, François starts to steal.

Antonio Gramsci: The Days of Prison
1977
Antonio Gramsci, sentenced to twenty years in prison by the fascist tribunals, relives the stages of his political career and private life.

Stream Line
1976
as Amanda Treves
Rome, October 16, 1943. The Germans deport the relatives and friends of the little Giacomo Treves who fortunately escapes capture. The child is entrus...

The Probability Factor
1976
as Gloria
Fred works for an insurance company as a computer engineer. He is bored with enduring the trials of his shrewish wife, so, after using actuarial table...

Chi dice donna, dice donna
1976
as Gilbert
Film in five episodes on the female universe. Among the women portrayed, neglected wives who become prostitutes, a worker who improvises a sexy bomb a...

The Night Caller
1975
as Norah Elmer
A serial-killer frightens Paris by phoning young ladies at night, telling them insults about their lives. Minos, as he calls himself, wants to prevent...

Allonsanfan
1974
as Charlotte
After the 1815 Restoration, an aging revolutionary finds himself reluctantly involved in an attempted insurrection in Southern Italy while growing inc...

Bloody Murder
1974
as Helene Noblet
Hélène, an antique dealer and her husband Georges, a respected doctor, live in a beautiful property and gives everyone the image of conjugal happiness...

Impossible Object
1973
as Hippolyta
Harry is a married writer who has an affair with a woman whose husband knows that she is unfaithful. As a result of his work, Harry has trouble distin...

The Son
1973
as Maria
Ange leaves New York to fly to his native Corsica. His mother is dying and Ange, who was not present when his father died, wishes to be present at her...

The Silent One
1973
as Maria
Who is Anton Haliakov, who has just been abducted by the M.I.5 in London? A Soviet scientist apparently. But sixteen years before the man had another ...

The Woman in Blue
1973
as Aurélie
Leading man Michel Piccoli plays Pierre, a young musician who briefly catches sight of a beautiful woman dressed in blue and soon spends all of his ti...

Indian Summer
1972
as Monica
In Italy, the gambler and professor of poetry Daniele Dominici arrives in the seaside town of Rimini and is hired to teach for four months in the loca...

And Hope to Die
1972
as Sugar
A crook on the run hooks up with a criminal gang to commit a kidnapping. However, things don't go quite as planned.

Paolo e Francesca
1971

Devil's Ransom
1971
as Britt
A rich industrialist is accused of a crime he didn't commit. But every single clue leads to him.

Murmur of the Heart
1971
as Clara Chevalier
This loosely plotted coming-of-age tale follows the life of 15-year-old Laurent Chevalier as he stumbles his way over the burgeoning swell of adolesce...

Céleste
1970
as Hélène
Georges Cazenave, a " politically committed" French TV reporter leads a good life. Besides having a regular mistress in the person of Hélène, he is a ...

The Things of Life
1970
as Catherine Bérard
The mind of Pierre Bérard, a successful middle-aged architect, is torn between his unstable present with Hélène, his younger lover, and his happy memo...

I Want Him Dead
1968
as Aloma
After his sister is kidnapped and murdered, a gunslinger's plans for vengeance involve assassinating two generals to prolong the Civil War.

Volver a vivir
1968
as María
A former soccer player is morally and mentally destroied by the death of his wife. But when he gets the chance to train a team he regains his life by ...

Garden of Delights
1967
Charlo and Carla are on their honeymoon. She is three months pregnant. He, furious about his marriage of convenience, recalls the past and ponders on ...
The Misanthrope
1967
as Célimène
Alceste hopes to be able to live his life without hypocrisy. However, he does not realize that social habits and the necessities of life do not fit th...

Made in Italy
1965
as Monica (segment "1 'Usi e costumi', episode 3")
A group of Italians take a flight to Sweden: among them there are the tourists, and the immigrants.

The Camp Followers
1965
as Toula
In WWII, Lieut. Martino and his men are assigned to lead a group of prostitutes through the mountainous ways to serve in brothels for Italian soldiers...

The Unvanquished
1964
as Dominique Servet
In this drama that alludes to the Algerian War with France of the 1960s, Thomas is a deserter from the French Foreign Legion who is on the run from au...

Weeping for a Bandit
1964
as María Jerónima
José María "El Tempranillo" fleeing from justice, takes refuge in Sierra Morena. After a period of hard learning, he becomes the leader of a group of ...

Conquered City
1962
as Lelia Mendores
Filmed in 1962 but not released in the US until 1966 (with 20 of its 108 minutes removed), Conquered City is an all-star World War II drama financed i...

The Four Days of Naples
1962
as Maria
September 1943. After Italy surrenders to the Allies, people in Naples believe the war is finally over, but soon they realize Germans are still in con...

Paris Pick-Up
1962
as Marthe Dravet
On Christmas night, an ex-convict meets a beautiful, married Italian woman who has a lot of things to hide.

A Difficult Life
1961
as Elena Pavinato
Silvio refuses to fight for the fascists and joins the resistance with Elena. After the war, his vitriolic newspaper articles cause him to be sentence...

Dreams Die at Dawn
1961
as Anna Miklos
Five Italian journalists live the last hours of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

The Colossus of Rhodes
1961
as Diala
While on holiday in Rhodes, Athenian war hero Darios becomes involved in two different plots to overthrow the tyrannical king, one from Rhodian patrio...

From a Roman Balcony
1960
as Freya
The ironic study of a young man's poignant adventures and sensual adventures...based on "Roman Tales" by Alberto Moravia.

L'Avventura
1960
as Anna
Claudia and Anna join Anna's lover, Sandro, on a boat trip to a remote volcanic island. When Anna goes missing, a search is launched. In the meantime,...

Resurrection
1958
as Maria Pawlowa
Young Prince Nechljudov is summoned as a judge in a murder trial. A rich merchant was found dead in the room of the inn where he was staying and the p...

I sogni nel cassetto
1957
as Lucia Moretti
The difficulties of a young married couple, since the husband has to prepare for his examinations during his wife's pregnancy.

Forbidden
1955
as Agnese Barras
Don Paolo, a young parson troubled by his love for Agnese, tries to make peace in a little village in Sardinia where two families are at war.