Roberto Benigni, my Geppetto is a super dad

Matteo Garrone faces the story that accompanies him as a child, "I used to draw him at six years and since then he has been with me, it was difficult to resist the temptation to make a film out of it, with absolute respect for Collodi but with an extra amount of lightness, irony and comedy ". The director talks about Pinocchio, his new, long-awaited film, a productively challenging transposition of the universal novel and with an all-Italian cast led by Geppetto - Roberto Benigni, in 600 copies on show from 19 December with 01.
"My name is often linked to a violent and harsh cinema - the director says - I would like instead to understand that my Pinocchio is for the little ones and for the grown-ups. I belong to every frame, but it addresses everyone as well as the masterpiece of Collodi, I like the idea of ​​rediscovering once again a great classic, perhaps even managing to surprise even if it is a story we all have inside ". There was an agreement between Benigni and Garrone: don't get compliments. But Roberto immediately breaks it: "I don't remember the last one I saw and who did it but this one by Matteo is definitely the most beautiful", jokes the director who in 2002 had directed a Pinocchio, reserving himself the role of the wooden puppet . This time it is Geppetto, "but I would also do the whale. Garrone is a great director, he is a painter, he tells in a unique way with images, it is moving and fun, this Pinocchio, for children aged 4 to 80, is a gift for my heart. And then Geppetto, what to say about this father par excellence, the most famous along with San Giuseppe, both with two adopted children who could not be more discreet? ". Garrone replies emphasizing Benigni "extraordinary, generous, courageous who made himself available to the film".
Does it excite you? Garrone's Pinocchio lights up in the key characters of the film, the fox (Massimo Ceccherini), the cat (Rocco Papaleo), in the irresistible snail (Maria Pia Timo), in the neorealist scenario at Paisà as well as Benigni emphasizes. "Poverty as represented by Garrone is not only dignified, but it is what makes life seem like a miracle in everything that happens, like in Chaplin". The story of Pinocchio is "a book that is not only a fairy tale but almost divinatory - says Benigni - with symbolisms, metaphors, allegories, a thousand teachings: do not tell the lies that you stretch your nose, for example, a genius found nothing but Spiderman , or else study if you become a donkey, or watch out for bad encounters and easy money, believe in the miracles that happen then, love those who love you.Pinocchio is a pure person who thinks that in the world there is no evil and Garrone gives it back to us with freedom and originality ".
The universality of Collodi's story is at the base of the fascination of one of the most beloved books not only in Italy, but Garrone admits that of the many interpretations the one that has relied on him is the most spontaneous: "the history of love between a father and a son, the power of redemption and the importance of love, the weakness of temptations. Everyone recognizes himself in this ". From an iconographic point of view, "I started from the origins, from the illustrations of Enrico Mazzanti who worked with Collodi himself at the end of the nineteenth century," explains Garrone, including Comencini's Macchiaioli and Pinocchio in his inspirations.
To convince his actors, Garrone with the complicity of Pietro Scola showed a reworking already in the clothes of the character: "I looked like my grandfather", Benigni jokes, "I was Geppetto and I didn't know", "I instead looked like Rasputin", adds Proietti which in the film is Mangiafuoco. And then Ceccherini, also screenwriter, in a duo with Papaleo "is in love with the snail" and Pinocchio in flesh and bone, Federico Ielapi, 8 years "four hours of make-up a day for three months, it was hard but they paid me well and I had close to the Oscar Benigni award and the make-up artist Mark Coulier, who has two of Oscar's ". (HANDLE).