Italy Lorenzo Codelli
152 | ITALY INTERNATIONAL FILM GUIDE Italy Lorenzo Codelli ilvio Berlusconi’s crumbling regime has Among other comedians attempting to expand endowed us with two symmetrical their fan base through film are Claudio Bisio, S‘prodigies’: a major economic and Vincenzo Salemme, Massimo Boldi, Paolo political crisis, and a flood of film comedies. Ruffini and the team of Francesco Mandelli His own muscular production and distribution and Fabrizio Biggio. Luciana Littizzetto, the empire, Medusa, is leading this lucrative trend, crudest joker of the bunch, set the tone for a which is far from new, but has never previously collection of comediennes, that include Paola attained such magnitude. Among the hundred Cortellesi, Nancy Brilli, Anna Foglietta, Lucia or so Italian features released in 2011, Ocone and Isabella Ragonese. around half were comedies – mostly cheaply concocted vehicles for TV clowns, rashly Some comedy performers have attempted assembled adaptations of fashionable sitcoms, to elevate the level of humour, aiming for or sequels to previous moribund ideas. satire. For instance, Giambattista Avellino’s Some Say No (C’è chi dice no) wittily mocks the national career system, which is based on family and class connections. Francesco Patierno’s biting Things from Another World (Cose dell’altro mondo) attacks the spread of racism against immigrants, showing a rich northern town from where, one stormy night, all foreigners suddenly disappear. Massimiliano Bruno’s Nobody Can Judge Me (Nessuno mi può giudicare) shows how jobless girls Gennaro Nunziante’s Such a Beautiful Day survive by becoming sex escorts, while Antonio Albanese transferred his small screen Checco Zalone, a bald, equine entertainer from incarnation as a corrupt politician to the large Bari, whose pseudonym means ‘Such-a-coarse- screen with Whatsoeverly (Qualunquemente, fellow’ and was launched by Berlusconi’s by Giulio Manfredonia).
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