Is it possible, and how, to tell the world through the comic and analyze reality with an ironic gaze? It was the year 1985 and Gabriele Salvatores, in the company of actors at the time novice – such as Paolo Rossi, Claudio Bisio, Antonio Catania, Silvio Orlando, Bebo Storti, Gigio Alberti – staged at the Teatro dell’Elfo Comedians by Trevor Griffiths. Over thirty years later the same text becomes a film – produced by Indiana and Raicinema, out on June 10 in 250 copies with 01 – with Natalino Balasso, Christian De Sica, Ale and Franz, Giulio Pranno. And the answer to that question is more complex than then. Comic was serious. In 1985 we were young anarchists eager to break the world, have fun and show our idea of comedy. We filled the text with gags. Rereading it I discovered, to quote Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon.
Or?
Despite being from 1976, very current. In the film I am faithful to the text, it helps to reflect on the use of stereotypes and prejudices to make people laugh. With precious jokes: “You are so afraid of others that you laugh at their misfortunes and weep at yours.” Or: “laughter is not the end but the means”.
The eternal debate on politically incorrect.
At the end of the 1980s it was cleared through customs, which in some ways is a good thing. But now if you say a nice thing you are a feel-gooder, while politicians use jokes to make friends with their constituents. I don’t want friends, I want fathers, who understand politics as a non-gag mission. But the issue of political incorrectness is a very delicate matter.
What do you think?
That goes hand in hand with your personal ethics. A joke is often used to evade a problem, or to exorcise things we fear, such as women and the sex that some males are terrified of. very wrong, true comedy should release a desire, not just make you overcome a fear. While the obsession with fairness can be dangerous and bordering on ridicule. Like the new rules for the Oscars, or the fact that there is now a gender manager on the sets. Or the idea that Sam Levinson, white director could not tell a black director in his Malcom & Marie.
As antagonist of the master Natalino Balasso he wanted Christian De Sica. Why?
I have always glimpsed a melancholy in him, which in some ways was a vulnerability that I liked so much. Like the fact that he believed the things he says, “I’m looking for comedians not philosophers.” They are the two visions of the film. When he accepted he said to me: “I will do it as my father would have done it.
His character says: “people just want to have fun”. After Covid so?
In my opinion no. I understand that kids can’t wait to go out, but I think people also need something that allows you to think about the future, like a vaccine. This is why I am happy that it is coming out now in the room.
Ihe next film Casanova’s return with Servillo.
That will not be Casanova, Fabrizio Bentivoglio does, while Toni is a director of his own age. Like Casanova in Arthur Schnitzler’s story, the director also wants to return to Venice, he won a Golden Lion there but now younger authors are pressing. We will start shooting the last days of the festival, Alberto Barbera has authorized us. a film about the passage of age, but also about the possibility of always leaving. Sara Serraiocco will probably be there, I’m still looking for Marcolina and I’d like some actors of this experience, let’s see who and in what role. my first film I don’t say autobiographical, but in which there are several things that concern me directly.
June 7, 2021 (change June 9, 2021 | 17:38)
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