On Sunday afternoon, in the Pathé auditorium in Dietlikon, the audience's ovation is not only for Carlo Verdone but also for Mimmo, for Ivano, for Sergio, for Manuel Fantoni and for Furio. It is applause for the characters the Roman actor has played over the course of his career, whose lines have by now become a cult of Italian cinema. Phrases memorised through repeated viewings of the films, such as “…one fine day I embarked on a cargo ship flying the Liberian flag” (from Borotalco, literally talcum powder, 1982) or “…this hand can be iron or be feather, this time it was feather” (Bianco rosso e verdone, literally White, Red and Verdone, 1981), which spread both in everyday language and online with memes and videos with thousands of views. Carlo Verdone is a summary of his characters, a hero of the genuine Italian comedy, homespun and less coarse. He is an artist who was able to grasp the worst and the best of Italians, bringing out with irony the flaws and tics that each of us recognises, in the next-door neighbour, in the friend or in the colleague. One does not perceive the director in the unreachable Olympus of film stars, thanks to the direct approach he has always kept as a neighbourhood boy: although he has acted alongside talented beauties such as Muti or Gerini, it is with Sora Lella, to the rhythm of “Annamo bene..” (we're doing just great), that his skill, his simplicity and also his melancholy are brought out most. Likewise for the male actors: he shared the screen with a giant such as Sordi, but it is with Mario Brega that he confirms his working-class, down-to-earth soul, from which the myth is born.
In Switzerland, the director presented his latest feature film Benedetta Follia (Blessed Madness) which, buoyed by the success it enjoyed in Italy, was brought again to the Italian-Swiss audience in the cinemas of Bern and Zurich. The response to his presence in the cinemas was resounding, thanks to the hundreds of fans whose hands he shook, granting an autograph or a photo without ever holding back. We meet him at the press conference, in Zurich, where he speaks about himself generously: Carlo, in Benedetta follia too there is a female lead with an essential role, with whom an alliance forms, a recurring theme in the plots of your films: is it a tribute you pay to the world of women? “Of course, I love women, I was born into a matriarchy, so I grew up surrounded by women; my mother was hugely important for my career, spurring me on to keep going even in difficult moments. I grew up professionally in a historical period in which the feminist struggle was asserting itself particularly strongly, and that left me with a deep respect for women; indeed there is always an actress with a strong role in my films. In Benedetta Follia there is the wonderful Ilenia Pastorelli, who plays a working-class woman who will help me improve my behaviour, uniting our solitudes like an embrace that conveys hope. Since I no longer play my characters, I try to highlight a single, more introspective male role.”
Speaking then of your characters, do you think Mimmo or Ivano have changed in 2018, or would Oscar Pettinari tell the story of the swamp in Rhodesia (from the film Un sacco bello, literally Really Great, 1980) on Facebook? “He would probably tell it on Facebook, but with less poetry. There is more loneliness, social media are a constant condominium quarrel, and there is a standardisation of phrases without imagination. The neighbourhood Rome of the 80s no longer exists, and I hope that, in the future, there will be a turning point, a return to the personal communication we had in the past.”
Regarding cinematic communication: today's trend gives a lot of space to television series. Do you think that sooner or later we will be so saturated with these offerings that we will want to go back to enjoying feature films? “Absolutely. Some series are very well made, but it is a cleverly structured product, because they manage to build audience loyalty by spreading the story over many episodes that, to follow the plot, one is forced to watch in full. In my opinion they have less soul. They are fine entertainment, but not comparable to the respectable feature films: the problem is that we should start making beautiful films again, and it is not easy to compete with the production of a television series that is written by 30 people and with different filming schedules.” And what is a respectable feature film that you would have liked to direct yourself? “La dolce vita (The Sweet Life), Fellini was the greatest of all. Something by Kubrick too… but I am only Carlo Verdone and, as long as I have the privilege of being able to bring a large audience to the cinema, I will carry on in my own style. I have commitments to my producer for the future, and I would like to develop unconventional themes in comedy, such as making a film about illness, a difficult subject that could hold surprises if treated with delicacy and elegance.”
I'll finish with a serious question: considering the meticulousness and precision of the Swiss, would Furio manage to get even the Swiss to tell him to get lost? “But Furio would be a perfect Swiss, in fact, sorry Magda, Furio is from Zurich!”
Friday, 14 September 2018 - Arena Sihlcity, Zurich
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Saturday, 15 September 2018 - Pathé Westside, Bern
Sunday, 16 September 2018 - Pathé Dietlikon (ZH)
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