He overwhelmed everyone with his sympathy, Antonio Albanese, who yesterday received the Famiglia Cristiana Award at the Venice Film Festival. Even when he spoke about very serious topics such as the fight against the mafia: «Precisely because my colleagues have addressed this issue with sublime realism, I, in the series “I topi”, tried to tell it with irony, showing the young generations that the mafiosi are ignorant beasts, who manage immense power, but then spend their lives underground, like mice, precisely». The award ceremony was officiated at the Italian Pavilion by the director of the weekly Stefano Stimamiglio and by the President of the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo Davide Milani.
In your latest film as a director, One Hundred Sundays, you told the story of a man defrauded by the bank in which he had placed all his trust. Have you met any real victims?
“Yes, I presented it in a cinema in front of people who had really been defrauded and when I saw them next to me I couldn’t say a word and I burst into tears. But I don’t want to demonize the entire banking system because of a few bad apples.”
After a film like this, do you think you’ll make more films as a pure comedian?
“We need to be clear. When I presented Qualunquemente in Germany, there was a total silence during the screening that worried me a lot. At the end there was thunderous applause and then a German told me: “It was one of the most dramatic films I have ever seen”. And I agree with him”.
In November he will return to the theater to propose his historical characters. Given today’s politicians, Cetto La Qualunque is very current…
“Cetto La Qualunque is now a moderate compared to them. At least he is honest in his dishonesty, he doesn’t hide things.”
Will there be any new characters too?
“Yes, I’m working on a character linked to religion. A confused man, with a great desire to pray but who has a problem: he can’t find the right position. I want to work on it calmly because I always try not to offend anyone.”
What do you think of the success of your friend Paola Cortellesi?
“Paola made a film that she had been dreaming of for a long time, with a great team and at the right time. If there is a lesson to be learned, it is that you have to be careful how you combine the various elements of a project with the historical moment in which to release it. Paola’s film hits the heart at a precise moment.”
What is your relationship with social media?
«A taxi driver once told me he agreed with my last post on Facebook. That’s how I discovered that there was someone pretending to be me, even though I don’t have an account. What do I care if I have ten thousand “friends”? Twenty are enough for me. I’ll tell you another story. A few years ago I realized a dream I had as a child: to go to Niagara Falls. While I was looking at them in ecstasy, I received a message from a friend: “What are you doing there?”. Someone, obviously with a lot of followers on social media, had seen me and made a video. I was really upset, because that should have been a moment just for me. I think we need to rediscover the value of silence and intimacy».
