Lino Banfi, I neither as a cover nor as an award

ROME - "I have always been one that cannot be covered, cannot be discovered and much less can be awarded. Films that collect money are not rewarded. There are still journalists who meet me and tell me: 'I used to go to see your films in secret, otherwise at Corsera and in the Republic they fired me '".

So this morning at the Casa del Cinema in Rome an ironic but not too ironic Lino Banfi presented the book by Alfredo Baldi THE MANY LIVES OF LINO BANFI (Edizioni Sabinae) together with the author and Milena Vukotic (among other things Baldi's wife) .

An overview of the life of the Apulian actor destined, at the age of eleven, to a priestly career when he was still called Pasquale Zagaria, to then leave the seminary and devote himself to his true passion: entertaining the public from a stage. First the show, then the most profitable cabaret, cinema, up to the Lino of television which consecrates him as an all-round actor. "The Lifetime Achievement Grand Prix? What is happening these days at the European Championships with Ciro Immobile scoring my 'Porca puttena' on TV after scoring. And then in a little while I will be 85. football, I'm already in extra time, who knows if I get to penalties ".

Two anecdotes told by the actor at the Casa del Cinema: his experience as an illegal parking attendant and the tonsil operation to eat and escape the cold. "In '53 I went to Milan and at the station I ran into the corporals who found work for us immigrants. When they realized that I had studied - explains Banfi - it was difficult to place me, so they assigned me to an illegal parking attendant. I was then 17 years old. I met gave me a hat and ordered me to cut my pockets. I did not understand what was happening, then I realized that he wanted my pockets smashed so that I could not hide the change they gave me. At the same time they also gave me a pill that could fool doctors about the health of my tonsils.Going to the hospital and having an operation was for me a way to eat and stay warm. "The pugliesità?" It never existed. There was no tradition like in Naples, so when in the seventies at 'Senza rete' they gave me a few minutes for each episode, I began to invent my own dialect, I said something like: Pippo Beudo and Iva Zaniccoli. It worked, but the Bari intellectuals never forgave me for this. "The stage name?" Totò gave me personally. Until 1952 my name was Lino Zaga, diminutive of Zagaria. When Totò discovered this thing, he immediately told me: 'The name is fine, but we don't make diminutives of the surnames. Brings bad '. And I immediately changed it by opening a register and finding a random surname. It was Banfi ".It never existed. There was no tradition like in Naples, so when in the seventies at 'Senza rete' they gave me a few minutes for each episode, I began to invent my own dialect, I said something like: Pippo Beudo and Iva Zaniccoli. It worked, but the Bari intellectuals never forgave me for this. "The stage name?" Totò gave me personally. Until 1952 my name was Lino Zaga, diminutive of Zagaria. When Totò discovered this thing, he immediately told me: 'The name is fine, but we don't make diminutives of the surnames. Brings bad '. And I immediately changed it by opening a register and finding a random surname. It was Banfi ".It never existed. There was no tradition like in Naples, so when in the seventies at 'Senza rete' they gave me a few minutes for each episode, I began to invent my own dialect, I said something like: Pippo Beudo and Iva Zaniccoli. It worked, but the Bari intellectuals never forgave me for this. "The stage name?" Totò gave me personally. Until 1952 my name was Lino Zaga, diminutive of Zagaria. When Totò discovered this thing, he immediately told me: 'The name is fine, but we don't make diminutives of the surnames. Brings bad '. And I immediately changed it by opening a register and finding a random surname. It was Banfi ".I began to invent my own dialect, I said something like: Pippo Beudo and Iva Zaniccoli. It worked, but the Bari intellectuals never forgave me for this. "The stage name?" Totò gave me personally. Until 1952 my name was Lino Zaga, diminutive of Zagaria. When Totò discovered this thing, he immediately told me: 'The name is fine, but we don't make diminutives of the surnames. Brings bad '. And I immediately changed it by opening a register and finding a random surname. It was Banfi ".I began to invent my own dialect, I said something like: Pippo Beudo and Iva Zaniccoli. It worked, but the Bari intellectuals never forgave me for this. "The stage name?" Totò gave me personally. Until 1952 my name was Lino Zaga, diminutive of Zagaria. When Totò discovered this thing, he immediately told me: 'The name is fine, but we don't make diminutives of the surnames. Brings bad '. And I immediately changed it by opening a register and finding a random surname. It was Banfi ".When Totò discovered this thing, he immediately told me: 'The name is fine, but we don't make diminutives of the surnames. Brings bad '. And I immediately changed it by opening a register and finding a random surname. It was Banfi ".When Totò discovered this thing, he immediately told me: 'The name is fine, but we don't make diminutives of the surnames. Brings bad '. And I immediately changed it by opening a register and finding a random surname. It was Banfi ".