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From: COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE by Ernesto G. Laura
In the decade, 1970-1980, a “second” wave of Italian-style comedy actors appeared on the scene, along with Sordi, Tognazzi, Manfredi and Gassman, who maintained their popularity.
Some of them already worked in films, even in leading roles, but had not had a real opportunity to rise from the ranks of qualified professionals
Continue reading 13. The "Second Wave" of Comedy Actors part one From: COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE by Ernesto G. Laura
FAUSTINA (1969), Luigi Magni’s first film as a director, is to be sure given a modern setting but ancient Rome plays an important part. The main characters, in fact, are “tombaroli”, that is those people who steal from Roman and Etruscan tombs, who are specialized in archeological plunder and then sell the
Continue reading 11. Comedy Dresses Up part four From: COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE by Ernesto G. Laura
In the ’60s, the transition from a light theater, with the shallow and evasive forms of the musical revue, to that form of theater, Anglo-Saxon in origin, known as musical comedy, led to excellent results in RUGANTINO, which opened at the Teatro Sistina in Rome in December, 1962, and after a
Continue reading 11. Comedy Dresses Up part three From: COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE by Ernesto G. Laura
The third director important to Gassman’s career as a film actor was Ettore Scola, formerly a script-writer, as has been seen, for films by Risi and others. After several routine but respectable films – SE PERMETTETE PARLIAMO DI DONNE (IF YOU DON’T MIND, LET’S TALK ABOUT WOMEN) and LA CONGIUNTURA (THE JUNCTURE)
Continue reading 10. Vittorio Gassman From Great Tragedian To Subtle Comedian part six From: COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE by Ernesto G. Laura
The turn in Vittorio Gassman’s career has a name, the director Mario Monicelli, and a title, the film I SOLITI IGNOTI (UNKNOWN, AS USUAL) made in 1958. Monicelli had to fight with producers to give Gassman the leading role. How was it possible to present the protagnoist of HAMLET as a comic
Continue reading 10. Vittorio Gassman From Great Tragedian To Subtle Comedian part two From: COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE by Ernesto G. Laura
Nino Manfredi, an obviously gifted creative actor, has almost always collaborated on the scripts of his films, has often supplied the story, but has appeared as director only twice. His first attempt, L’AVVENTURA DEL SOLDATO (THE SOLDIER’S ADVENTURE), an episode in L’AMORE DIFFICILE (DIFFICULT AMOURS), has already been mentioned with regard to
Continue reading 8. Nino Manfredi Outside the Set Character part nine From: COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE by Ernesto G. Laura
When he was running up and down Italy shooting a television program about passengers on second-class trains, the director Nanni Loy ran into a strange character, a man out of work who had “invented” a profession by boarding trains at night to sell people coffee, without a license and without paying taxes.
Continue reading 8. Nino Manfredi Outside the Set Character part eight From: COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE by Ernesto G. Laura
Chaplinesque echoes are also to be found in Marcello, a meek, dreamy violinist who lives with a wife, a prostitute by profession but deeply in love with him, and a cat, the role played by Manfredi in ATTENTI AL BUFFONE! (LOOK OUT FOR THE JESTER!: 1975) by director and writer Alberto Bevilacqua,
Continue reading 8. Nino Manfredi Outside the Set Character part seven From: COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE by Ernesto G. Laura
Among films based on the contemporary history of Italy, GIROLIMONI – IL MOSTRO DI ROMA (GIROLIMONI – THE MONSTER OF ROME) was much more vivid. Damiano Damiani evocatively depicts the Rome of 1925 at the time of the coup d’etat which brought Benito Mussolini to power. The Girolimoni “case” caused great excitement
Continue reading 8. Nino Manfredi Outside the Set Character part six From: COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE by Ernesto G. Laura
That Manfredi refused to limit herself to a set character does not mean, however, that he denied those Ciociaria peasant roots which go to make up an important part of his personality. His Marino Balestrini, a village barber, in STRAZIAMI, MA DI BACI SAZIAMI (TORTURE ME, BUT FILL ME WITH KISSES: 1968)
Continue reading 8. Nino Manfredi Outside the Set Character part five From: COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE by Ernesto G. Laura
Manfredi steps out of the sphere of merely national prestige with the light-hearted OPERAZIONE SAN GENNARO (OPERATION SAN GENNARO: 1966) by Dino Risi, a sort of parody of the American “hard-boiled film” set in Naples amidst the Song Festival and the procession of San Gennaro, with a “guappo” (that is, a local
Continue reading 8. Nino Manfredi Outside the Set Character part four From: COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE by Ernesto G. Laura
1963 was an important year for the actor, called to Spain to play the leading role in one of the most scathing works in its criticism of the social conventions of that country, directed by Luis Berlanga, EL VERDUGO/LA BALLATA DEL BOIA (THE BALLAD OF THE HANGMAN), and in Italy to appear
Continue reading 8. Nino Manfredi Outside the Set Character part three From: COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE by Ernesto G. Laura
It is no accident that the film which enabled Manfredi to attain an enduring popularity, after a decade or so of a respectiable career, was L’IMPIEGATO (THE OFFICE CLERK: 1959) by Gianni Puccini, written by him and Puccini together with future director Elio Petri and the critic Tommaso Chiaretti. It’s a film
Continue reading 8. Nino Manfredi Outside the Set Character part two In 1959, Nino Manfredi appeared on the TV show Canzonissima.
From: COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE
by Ernesto G. Laura
Among the actors to whom the film comedy owes its success, Nino Manfredi represents an opposite case from Sordi. While Sordi, as we have seen, though at home in every kind of role, met with success only when he got his “personage”
Continue reading 8. Nino Manfredi Outside the Set Character part one From: COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE by Ernesto G. Laura
The trilogy concluded with ANNI RUGGENTI (ROARING TIMES: 1962) from a story by Amidei, Vincenzo Talarcio and the director himself and a script by Zampa, Ettore Scola and Ruggero Maccari. Set in the Fascist period, the film is vaguely based on the “gimmick” used by Gogol in THE INSPECTOR GENERAL. Omero, the
Continue reading 6. Political And Civil Satire: The Comedy Takes A Look At History part three |
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