Bianco, rosso e Verdone - 1981

 

The story of a voting day in Italy, meaning the stories of three different men who travel to  get to their right place of voting (since of course you can’t vote wherever you are but you must go to the place that has your name written down, your town of residence even if you’re not living there now).

It’s a funny movie, to appreciate the most famous characters portrayed by actor and director Verdone, but it’s never been clear to me why he ended the movie with a death… to bring us to reality, maybe, and to remind us that amidst all the comedy there is also much serious satire… maybe.

 - Pasquale lives in Monaco, Germany now, and comes back to Italy to vote, but as soon as he’s inside our borders things start going badly for him, bringing it home for him how really different this place is - and not in a good way.

 - Furio is totally satisfied with his life, and with the way he himself is, and sees nothing wrong with his behaviour at all. He is so maniacally precise to the point of madness, and his wife is there already, poor woman.

 - Mimmo is a kid in a grown-up’s body, more or less. He goes up north to collect his grandmother and drive her all the way back so she can vote.

So:

Pasquale lives with his German girlfriend who doesn’t seem to mind that he never speaks but likes to whistle a lot. He drives to Matera to vote.

He stops just inside our borders to drink something, and it’s enough time for someone to steal his radio. 

He stops the car for some hitchhikers, but they’re quite choosey, and after a look inside they change their mind.

He stops for a sandwich but eats a lollypop instead after seeing a young girl eating it. Then he sees other things he’d like and he buys a lot, but when he goes back to his car, someone stole all his stuff.

He stops to play football with some strangers.

He stopped to eat and finds his car without front glass and seat.

Pasquale hands in his vote and then for the first time he speaks, very fast and angrily, telling the people there everything that happened to him since he entered Italy. He’s barely understandable, and then he goes out, supposedly to hurry back to Germany, already fed up with Italy.

Furio is married to Magda and they have two sons, and they drive to Rome. She’d really like to stay home, and have a bit of time to herself, but he won’t hear of it, he insists she goes too.

She can’t stand it anymore. “Non ce la faccio più” is her most frequent phrase.

He refuses to let his sons AntonLuca and AntonGiulio use the public toilets. It’s not that easy for Magda, being a woman she insists she needs to go to the bathroom and goes anyway but he openly judges her.

He gave her a list of all the things to bring and she forgot just a silly thing. She sneaks into bathrooms to vent her frustrations, and into bars to get her pills to go on.

They need to change a tyre, but instead of doing it himself, Furio calls for ACI Support because he says that he’s a member and it is his right to demand it. Raul saw Magda at their last stop and was quite taken with her, and now he insists on changing the tyre for her despite all her protests. Furio is not ok with that at all and blames her for this ‘big trouble’. So he changes the tyre again to wait for ACI to arrive. She can’t stand it anymore.

Furio has an accident that involves many cars. The doctor wants to keep him for a few hours so she checks into a hotel with her sons. Raul goes too, into his own room.

Raul keeps pursuing Magda, she does her best to resist and sleeps with her sons instead. He keeps following her and when they finally reach their destination and Furio comes out after voting, he finds the boys alone without her.

Mimmo drove from Rome to Verona to get his grandma, she was there with her daughter, Mimmo’s mum’s sister. Mimmo comes to get her to drive her back home. He has a lot to deal with, he helps her put on her stockings and must remember to give her her medicines. They also stop the car for an injection, but a truck driver stops as well seeing the scene, and helps, He’s good at that. Then she insists of a detour to visits a cemetery, but she can’t remember the name of the person she wanted to visit.

He always speaks really loudly. They stop to eat and sit with a Russian family and Mimmo gives the girl his phone number because grandma insisted.

He checks everything she eats or drinks because mindful of her health.

He stops at the same hotel Magda is staying at, for a toilet-stop.

They finally reach their destination, and grandma finally gets to vote, but then she is found dead inside the cabin. Mimmo screams but nobody seems to share his distress or to offer any kind of comfort, and he runs out crying.

Pasquale, Furio and Mimmo - Carlo Verdone

Sono pazzo di Iris Blond - 1996

 Romeo is in a pop band with his girlfriend and his best friend, then they break up because the other two get together.

A year later Romeo speaks to the Saint, a woman who sees everything and knows everything, and she tells him that his life is about to change, that he will meet a woman whose name is a flower, and will find love and money and happiness.

While working - he plays the piano - he meets Marguerite, who sings, and six months later they’re still together in Bruxelles. He’s not happy though, and goes out at night to eat at a fast-food, and meets the waitress, Iris. 

He meets her again and starts with the lies - he says his partner is a 27 year-old fashion photographer,Sylvie.

She writes small poems, so he tells her they should turn them into songs and record them. Marguerite follows him and sees them together, so they break up and he goes to stay at Iris’ place.They decide to focus on their work, and Iris tells him they must never sleep together so not to ruin their partnership. They practice a lot and make a few song, and find a job playing at some club in town, and they are much liked.

A producer sees them and makes a big offer to Iris, but only her. She’s 25, and it’s a great offer, but they don’t want Romeo because they say he’s demodè, they want a younger image for her.

Iris gets home and they make love, she waits to tell him the news til the morning. Romeo tells her he’s in love with her, and then she tells him her news. Romeo is so angry, he yells at her saying things very very hurtful, calling her names, bad words, making her cry, wanting back all the money he paid for her home and their job, until she goes to stay with her father… or so she says. Romeo is exactly her father’s age.

Iris takes the train to Paris, wants him to go with her, but he’s still angry, talks to her like a scolding father, then he asks her not to go. 

Of course she goes anyway.

It ends with Romeo playing in the club, without her.

Romeo - Carlo Verdone

Iris- Claudia Gerini

Borotalco - 1982

 It starts with showing Sergio and Nadia preparing themselves to go out (first shot is at his feet being washed and dried). Only Sergio is with Rossella, while Nadia is with a guy that doesn’t want her to find a job for herself.

Both Sergio and Nadia show up for the same job. They both go door to door selling contracts, she does really well, he doesn’t. When he learns how good she is, he asks her to help him, to show him how it’s done. 

She was supposed to speak with Mr Fantoni, to sell him a contract, so he goes there to meet her, but after a long wait she still isn’t there, so he goes in by himself. Nadia was busy buying tickets for Dalla’s concert. 

Sergio enters his apartment and there’s a woman who for no reason whatsoever has him see her in the nude, completely, front and back.

Sergio and Manuel talk a lot, then the guy is arrested, his real name is Cuticchia, so Sergio is left there to tidy up and leave. Sergio takes a look around, tries on some of his clothes, tries to talk like him. When Nadia arrives, Sergio continues the charade, pretending to be Manuel Fantoni. 

Later he tries to break things up, inventing a trip abroad, but he likes her so he goes to her house intending to come clean and tell her everything, but there are all her friends so he goes back to be Manuel, but runs away when his girlfriend comes looking for Sergio.

He keeps seeing her as Manuel, inventing lots of stories of things he’s done, places he’s been, people he’s met. He even pretends to know Lucio Dalla, so he pretends his bike is broken to make her miss the concert. He keeps up the pretence, and when they get there, he leaves her new song in his roulotte.

He visits Manuel in prison for advice, and has permission to take her to his house. He does, but tired of waiting for Sergio to show up, Rossella’s father went to his friend Marcello and got the truth out of him, so he barged into the apartment, revealing everything. Nadia goes out and cries while driving, so she has an accident. Sergio goes to the hospital, but she never wants to see him again.

Nadia marries Cristiano, they open a bar together. Sergio marries Rossella, and now they have a baby boy together. 

Nadia calls Sergio under another name, to see him again and talk, and then they kiss.

Sergio - Carlo Verdone 

All the other actors are known, but I don’t remember their name and Italian movies do not have the cast in the ending credits. Absurd, I know.

Ah, Marcello is Christian De Sica, and for whatever reason he spoke with an unnatural accent, as if he was Sicilian or something.

Compagni di scuola - 1988

 Not really funny, no, it’s more bitter than funny. Not a bad movie per se, it’s not, but it’s not for me, I never want to see it again. It’s the story that I don’t like. It’s about a group of people and what became of them. They were in school together and after 15 years they meet again.

All these people have their own problems, no doubt, but I can’t stand that nobody of these grown up took care of the teenage girl that joined their group, and left her alone with a man that took advantage of her, and nobody really seemed to care. A woman does, a bit, and takes her home, but nobody seems to care about what happened to her. No, it’s the film that doesn’t care about her, that treats her like an object needed to talk about the man.

 

It starts from Federica, who sent everyone an invitation, she wanted to have a party and see her old friends, of a time when life was easier. All her classmates came but 4 because one died, one refused and for the other two the reason is not known. 

-

• Piero Ruffolo, called Potato from his mates, seems almost ashamed of being a high-school teacher. He is always nervous, appears scared by the world, in a way, and is not surprising that he fell in love with one of his students. He is weak, clumsy and submissive. He went to the wrong party first and let the lady of the house take all the bottle he brought, then tries to steal a plant but is caught.  When Valenzani tells him to go and get the girl, take her to the party, he never questions it, he does it. He is married to a woman that he finds vulgar and annoying, with a son that he doesn’t even know, always with his mother. He can’t stand that situation, but he would have usually been too scared to do anything about it . After talking to MariaRita and also a waiter in his same situation, who wishes he had divorced many years before, he leaves the party to break things up with his family.  His wife’s father tries to patch things up between them, but has a hard time containing his crazy daughter and there’s little nothing he can do. When Piero gets back to the party and sees Cristina crying, at first he tries to beat up Valenzani, but then he refuses to talk to her. Maybe he was jealout that someone touched her when he never did, which shows that he’s a sh*t person somewhere inside, because she didn’t cheat, didn’t want it, she’s the victim here but nobody seems to realise that. When Cristina gets a ride home, Piero realises she’s going away and suddenly he’s all over her again, wants to see her again, maybe because he’s in love or maybe because after leaving his family she’s the only thing he had left.
• Federica Polidori is their host, a beautiful, elegant woman living in a beautiful villa. She calls herself a kept woman, for a long time it seems that the sixth man among the richest in Italy paid for everything for her. She does not look happy, and at the end she admits she’s been evicted and has nothing left. She’ll go stay with Gloria, a classmate who offers to take her in.
• Ciardulli has always been a bit of a clown, and he plans to scare them all with a fake robbery but the politician’s bodyguards beat him up. He went into show-business, but at the moment is full of debts. He tries poker, but his classmates win. He refuses to pay because he has no money and instead asks them for some, even going round on his knees. Still, he’s also always ready to help, like when they need to carry the wheelchair upstairs or when Piero’s car is broken. He’s the only one that tries to help him with it.
• Walter Finocchiaro arrives driving an expensive red car. He’s loud and blunt. He drives a mate away, Fabris, with his constant mocking of him. Much later he complains that the money he had with him is gone, someone in there stole it, but then re stays for the rest of the party.
• Valenzani went into politics, he’s an undersecretary, and is used to people trying to ask him for favours, as he is used to getting whatever he wants, whatever the cost. He acts like a big man but he’s nothing more than a criminal with a drug problem. He takes advantage of a high-school student and then goes away.
• Valeria Donati and Luca Guglielmi- She comes with a friend. She’s angry at her soon-to-be ex-husband and almost leaves when she sees him at the party, she says she never wants to see him again, and spends the first half of the party avoiding him. Postiglione keeps talking to her though, and eventually she can’t listen to him anymore and prefers Luca’s company. He talks to her all night trying to win her back, and eventually they kiss and he’ll take her home on his bike.
• Maria Rita is a psychologist, a therapist, and therefore everyone tends to talk to her about their business. She listens to people all night, then after a bit of drinking she snaps at Piero that nobody ever wants to listen to her, but later apologises. She takes Cristina home.
• Lepore and Santolamazza, they prank the others all night. Lepore tells them that Lino Santolamazza had an accident, that all his family died and he was badly injured and on a wheelchair. We see quite early that they laugh about it together. They go on with it all night, planning for a big scene at the end, when he would scream of a miracle that he can walk again, but Ciardulli sees him and understands it was all a lie, so he ties his wheelchair to the catering van, about to leave. Lino gets hurt and everybody learns the truth.
• Piermaria Fabris apparently changed a lot since his school days. He appears to be a friendly and kind man, brings flowers for their host and is happy to meet his old friends, but quite soon he gets fed up with their mocking and the fact that nobody recognises him and nobody has a friendly word for him, and goes away.
• Postiglione is so boring, talks so much that they all avoid him. He talks incessantly to anyone he can grasp, literally, until they put something in his wine and he spends the rest of the night sleeping on a couch.
• Gloria arrives with a baby boy that she could not leave at home. She is not married and does not want to talk of the baby’s father. She loves her child and is friendly with anyone, and when she learns that Federica doesn’t have a house anymore, promptly offers her to live together for a while, until she’s settled.
• Jolanda drives Valeria to the party, and is totally on her side against Luca. She’s outgoing and self-confident, and a bit annoyed when Valeria stays with Luca at the end. Jolanda gets stuck with Lino more than once, the two pranksters (lets call them that…) have her spoon-feed him, and then move his chair around to dance. 
• Margherita is married to a man from the south, a Carabinieri captain, who will come get her at midnight. She spends the whole night with Toscani, they talk, they dance, he keeps flirting with her. At 2350 her husband arrives and he says that the man came ten minutes early. She replies that it’s him that arrived 15 years too late, and then kisses him before going out. Later we see that he finally found the earring (or whatever it was) that she lost, and smiles. Either because he’s thinking of her, or because he’s planning to see her again, maybe using the earring as an excuse
• Gioia is the female clown of the class, always making the others laugh. She’s sad inside because she can never have children.
• Giulio Atteni is clearly in love with Federica, unrequited. He is enthusiastic, shoots a video of their reunion, and is the only one that tries to stop Walter and the others when they keep mocking Fabris at the beginning. He laughed too, at first, but then he noticed Fabris’ expression and tried to stop the others from continuing. 

Piero Ruffolo - Carlo Verdonea

Federica Polidori - Nancy Brilli

Bruno Ciardulli - Christian De Sica

Walter Finocchiaro - Angelo Bernabucci

Mauro Valenzani - Massimo Ghini

Valeria Donati - Eleonora Giorgi

Luca Guglielmi - Piero Natoli

Maria Rita Amoroso - Athina cenci

Cristina - Natasha Hovey

Armando Lepore - Maurizio Ferrini

Lino Santolamazza - Alessandro Benvenuti

Piermaria Fabris - Fabio Traversa

Ottavio Postiglione - Luigi Petrucci

Gloria Montanari - Luisa Maneri

Jolanda Scarpellini - Isa Gallinelli

Margherita Serafini - Giusi Cataldo

Toscani - Giovanni Vettorazzo

Gioia Savastano - Carmela Vincenti

plus

Gianny Musy - Piero’s father-in-law