The Tuscan comedian son of a generation where everyone did it alone
Let’s do the artistic accounts in the pocket of Roberto Benigni who turns 70 on 27 October: he has 8 films as director, the last “Pinocchio” of 2002, over 25 as an actor also in foreign participations even with Jarmusch, the French Asterix , with the Pink Panther, with Woody Allen away in Rome, as well as many unspecified television appearances, since Arbore chose him as a film critic in his “Other Sunday”, the springboard. In Italy he starred directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci who launched him on TV as Cioni Mario and then at the cinema in “Berlinguer I love you” in which poor Alida Valli had to say as many bad words as ever before when she was Countess Serpieri with Visconti.
But as an artist who does not contain himself, as a jester who is not afraid of anyone and looks reality in the face grinning, Benigni the only Italian actor who really always and willingly goes outside the margins, starting with the cheerful gag of picking up his partners in TV appearances, from Baudo to Berlinguer at Carr. It is true that he had great successes using safe cards, such as time travel in the film with Troisi “We just have to cry”, the pyrotechnic duet with Matthau in “Little devil”, the eternal double game in “Johnny Stecchino ”And then that of the exchange of person in“ Il mostro ”, without considering the prophetic Fellini legacy of the“ Voice of the Moon ”, but in the last 10 years he has shown that he knows how to make a show even with unusual subjects. Of course, the “Divine Comedy”, which he knows by heart and which he played (perhaps, said) one summer in Florence in installments as a great feuilleton, a super classic that has recently inspired Pupi Avati cinema.
But get on the stage in Sanremo to recite and discuss before the national anthem Fratelli d’Italia, making a logical analysis of it as in school, and then of our Constitution, making it a moral analysis, this is a winning venture that only a prestigious and courageous wild card like Benigni could do . In fact, he is entitled to many records, as well as originality and the courage to never be entangled. He was, after two women, the first actor to win the Oscar by acting not in English, as had previously happened with Magnani and Loren. In this sense Benigni is an artist who binds himself to the spirit of his country, because he wins prizes in the world and puts them on the shelf of Italy, of which he reads and deepens the foundations of our democracy, whose basic concepts are present in each of his films, a begin with “La vita bella” which caused the Yiddish world to be discussed not a little but in the end had a worldwide consecration.
The further proof is benign that much of our cinema comes from the theater, but while the Italian comedy was formed by the greats of the magazine and variety, from Tot to Magnani, from De Filippo to Sordi, Tognazzi, Chiari, Manfredi and, again from the theater, Valeri, Vitti, Melato, Gassmann and many others, Benigni arrives by train later, that of the comedian who plays and risks alone. And they are the comedians discovered in the cabaret, even that of the cellars, where the great entrepreneurs occasionally ventured, as happened in Verdone. Benigni is therefore part of this ensemble of talents brought up at the school of the stand up comedian, where he improvises willingly even without every line passing through the censorship office, as happened in the theater.
Benigni, Verdone, Village, Nuti, Troisi, Benvenuti but also De Sica and Boldi with cinepanettoni. It was a generation that did everything by itself, did not need great directors like Monicelli, Comencini, Germi, Risi, Pietrangeli, Scola, the great comedians who told the history of Italy, but wanted to be masters of everything and control everything, subject, interpretation, rega and interpretation, perhaps even advertising. But this half farewell to Benigni’s scenes remains a little mysterious, even considering the minor success of his latest titles, while an intact popularity still allows him every kind of choice today.
October 26, 2022 (change October 26, 2022 | 15:20)
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