The actor with the revelation Sara Ciocca in «Suddenly Christmas»: from December 1st on Prime Video
“We are too strong, there is none for anyone.” On the screen a grandfather and his granddaughter, in life an Oscar-winning master (67 years old) and a hope of cinema (14 years old). This is how Diego Abatantuono and Sara Ciocca define themselves. «We are like Sandra and Raimondo». They have the right comedic timing, they fit together perfectly. She calls him “Diegone”. He is «the new Anna Magnani». Their duet was not to be missed at the press conference: «he really knows everything and pretends to do something wrong to put his colleagues at ease. He is very talented, he I feel sorry for the others ». They found themselves in the cast of «Suddenly Christmas» directed by Francesco Patierno. The classic family comedy, don’t call it cinepanettone for heaven’s sake, which is expected for Christmas. Produced by Notorious Picture, however it will not go in theaters. The “fear” of a new pandemic wave has made us opt for streaming, so it can be seen exclusively on Prime Video from December 1st.
In a delightful high mountain hotel owned precisely of grandfather Lorenzo (Abatantuono), every year for Christmas his whole family gathers, namely his beloved granddaughter Chiara (Sara Ciocca) together with her parents, Alberta (Violante Placido) and Giacomo (Lodo Guenzi). This year, however, on the eve of mid-August, Alberta’s family unexpectedly arrives at the hotel with a specific purpose: the couple is in crisis and hopes for the help of grandfather Lorenzo to give his teenage daughter the bitter news. It must be said that even the elderly Lorenzo has more than one problem, he is in fact about to sell the hotel to a Chinese man, but accepts the assignment of his daughter and son-in-law on a pact: he wants to give his niece the last happy Christmas even if it’s mid-August. In this family comedy – produced by Guglielmo Marchetti for Notorious Pictures – there are many actors: Michele Foresta, in the role of the bewildered and controversial factotum of the hotel; Nino Frassica as a disenchanted priest; Paolo Hendel instead plays the role of a local farmer; Antonio Catania and Anna Galiena are Giacomo’s parents and, finally, Gloria Guida is a single customer of the hotel. And again Abatantuono: «By now the films they offer me are always the same, given my advanced age, but that doesn’t mean I don’t choose. The important thing is to know what you can and can’t do. Even Christmas movies aren’t all the same, I’ve made many, even one shot in Sacrofano – continues the actor -. Making movies since I was eighteen, I’ve lived on set all my life and now I know which films I like and dislike. I then worked with many directors, from Carlo Vanzina to Gabriele Salvatores and Giovanni Veronesi». Why a Christmas movie? «It was an enormous risk – says the director Patierno – also because it is a genre in crisis, but I like challenges. Inside me there are many natures, not just that of auteur cinema. In this film I have tried above all to reverse the plan of the characters: adults are children and children instead of adults. And all this by looking at French and American comedy».
Nov 23, 2022 – Updated Nov 24, 2022, 7:08 PM
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