How many today remember Renato Rascel (1912 – 1991), aka the “National Little One”? “He was one of those multifaceted artists who could (and was able) to write and interpret every role with enthusiasm, grit and determination”, explains to time.news Elisabetta Castiglioni, author of the volume dedicated to him “Renato Rascel. A protagonist of the show of the Novecento “, to be released by Iacobelli publisher in the main Italian bookstores and on digital platforms.
“I would dare to say that his talent derives from the ability to observe around him, as a child, what was happening and to concentrate on restoring it – continues Castiglioni – with surreal scenic situations, jokes and interpretations, through his own dreamlike and delightful creativity, above all unsettling. The biggest surprise is precisely to have discovered that his greatness came from being an intelligent self-taught, capable of listening to the spectator and intuiting their moods “.
A multiple character, both as an original author and as a refined and unmistakable interpreter, as well as a singer, Rascel was in fact able to create, in his unpredictable performances, a very personal style, playful and reflective on the ‘fil rouge’ of surrealism. Castiglioni has been searching for its traces for twenty years in public and private archives and dedicates this essay to him, convinced “that Rascelian creative writing is still current and extremely communicative”. His is a critical itinerary through the genesis and background of his works, capable of bringing out their poetics and uniqueness.
Strengthened by an unmistakable style and his talent as a “one man show”, the eclectic Rascel unraveled with ‘nonchalance’ between show, magazine, musical comedy, prose, cinema, television, pop music, genres to which the several chapters of the volume. The bewildered and childlike character of him knew how to establish an immediate dialogue with the public, ranging from the humor of the “Corazziere” to the poetics of the absurd of Beckett and Jonesco; from the musical comedies of Garinei and Giovannini to the “evergreen” songs, first of all “Arrivederci Roma”.
In this reasoned artistic biography, where interesting unpublished projects also stand out, one can retrace the various stages of his career to grasp the measure of his greatness as well as the events of half a century of Italian entertainment. The volume, rich in iconography, is edited by Francesco Coniglio.
Born in 1912 and died in 1991, Rascel will be a musician, performer, director, composer, dancer, singer, author – in short, a storyteller of his own bewildered poetics – from the Thirties to the Eighties, touching the comic and dramatic chords without distinction, without ever intellectualistic pretensions .
“His gentle humor – Castiglioni emphasizes again – produced genuine well-being and his commitment to face every new adventure between theater, cinema, radio, television, music, journalism and children’s fairy tales. In every gesture, word, action and reflection (such as having understood, among the first, the eclectic mastery of Gigi Proietti, to give an example) Rascel has put both his and ‘ours’.
And Rascel’s ‘temper’? “Many remember him for this – replies the author – I consider him professionalism. I didn’t know him personally, but I ‘breathed’ him for three years on scripts, books and newspapers, but above all through the stories of the person who Giuditta Saltarini has been alongside him – in public and in private – for over 20 years “.
Finally, a hope: that the new generations take an interest “in this work of research and investigation, because in that part of the Italian show, of which Rascel was contemporary, there is a lot to recover and rediscover”.