The 1970 film was the moment of greatest glory for the actor who had just passed away
«Guaglio ‘, you have talent!». This is the compliment that De Sica paid to Lino Capolicchio on the set of Ihe garden of the Finzi Contini (without the hyphen between the two surnames in the novel because Bassani, dissatisfied with the screenplay, thus wanted to indicate the “distance” of the film from his book). A compliment that came after the most difficult scene of the film, at least for the young actor: the discovery that the woman he was in love with, played by Dominique Sanda, had ended up in bed with his friend Bruno (i.e. Fabio Testi). Just two takes, and then a pat by the director on the back of him as he goes back to the dressing room. “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, I stay planted there, overwhelmed by emotion,” he wrote in his autobiography D’amore non si muore, published by Rubettino and the CSC.
Indeed, that joke cannot be forgotten. Capolicchio had only made six films before this one (and in the first, an appearance for Taming of the shrew di Zeffirelli had not even been credited) and when he is chosen, after two auditions at a distance of a month and a half from each other – the first with a still unknown Laura Antonelli, the second with Sanda – the actor understands that for he can be the turning point of his career. He also remembers the date of the day on which he learned that he had been chosen: «That April 6, 1970 is a date that is difficult for me to forget, a moment of glory. In such moments you forget all the sacrifices, the difficulties, the humiliations, you just think that your job is the best job in the world “he wrote. And then he adds: “Even if you often tend to forget about it.”
Of the fifty and more films (not counting the television series) che Capolicchio interpreted, The garden of the Finzi Contini it is the one that marked his entire career by acting as a watershed, because he imposed his qualities as an actor that until then had only been able to be glimpsed (Vogue consecrated him with a cover, signed by Oliviero Toscani). It cannot be denied that alongside a fascinating Dominique Sanda it was Capolicchio’s performance, with his elegant and restrained presence, that helped the success of the film, consecrated by the Golden Bear in Berlin and the Oscar for best film. foreign. But perhaps the best appreciation as an interpreter, Capolicchio received from Golda Meir, at the world premiere of the film which took place in Jerusalem: sitting next to the gala dinner, one hears the Prime Minister ask if he was Jewish. With some embarrassment, the actor observes that he is not aware of it but he is told that he plays the character so well that he seems to be perfectly. It’s hard to think of a bigger compliment.
May 4, 2022 (change May 4, 2022 | 12:00)
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