September 1st this year is not a date like any other: Vittorio Gassmann turns 100 and it is the occasion in which all Italian culture can restore him the prestige that too often has been denied him for the benefit of popular success. with suspicion from intellectuals.
In reality, there were numerous celebrations throughout the year, culminating in the great exhibition at the auditorium in Rome and in the naming of a Lungotevere in the name of him, the only actor together with Anna Magnani and Marcello Mastroianni to appear twice in the toponymy of the Capital.
For the evening of his birthday, the journalist and director Fabrizio Corallo organized a special screening of his documentary dedicated to "Vittorio, king of comedy" at the Casa del Cinema in Rome.
Five days later, the Mostra del Cinema will greet his birthday (and that of his friend and colleague Ugo Tognazzi), to remember him by presenting the restored version of one of the couple's masterpieces, "The march on Rome" directed by Dino Risi and now returned visible thanks to Aurelio De Laurentiis and National Film Archive.
But who was Vittorio Gassmann really, born on the outskirts of Genoa (in Struppa) on 1 September 1922 and died in his sleep in his Roman home on 2 June 2000?
Contrasted personality, probably bipolar psyche, classical training, perfectionist at work, restless in life and loves, this and much more was Vittorio, the Showman.
Like him, no one on the Italian scene, even if he considered himself the heir of the great comedians with a bit of self-irony, having married Nora, the daughter of Renzo Ricci.
Trained at the Silvio d'Amico Academy, in 1943 he made his debut in the theater with "La nemica" by Niccodemi alongside the great Alda Borrelli to then keep company with Ernesto Calindri and Tino Carraro at the Eliseo Theater.
In his past there are the inheritance of his parents (the father a German civil engineer, the Pisan Jewish mother), a childhood year lived in Palmi in the Ferrobeton district designed by his father, the classical high school diploma (with great passion for Greco) at the Roman Liceo Tasso and a promising career as a basketball player with his 187 centimeters in height, then put in the attic for the benefit of acting.
by Niccodemi alongside the great Alda Borrelli to then keep company with Ernesto Calindri and Tino Carraro at the Eliseo Theater.
In his past there are the inheritance of his parents (the father a German civil engineer, the Pisan Jewish mother), a childhood year lived in Palmi in the Ferrobeton district designed by his father, the classical high school diploma (with great passion for Greco) at the Roman Liceo Tasso and a promising career as a basketball player with his 187 centimeters in height, then put in the attic for the benefit of acting.
by Niccodemi alongside the great Alda Borrelli to then keep company with Ernesto Calindri and Tino Carraro at the Eliseo Theater.
In his past there are the inheritance of his parents (the father a German civil engineer, the Pisan Jewish mother), a childhood year lived in Palmi in the Ferrobeton district designed by his father, the classical high school diploma (with great passion for Greco) at the Roman Liceo Tasso and a promising career as a basketball player with his 187 centimeters in height, then put in the attic for the benefit of acting.
Even at the cinema he soon found space despite the difficulties of wartime and immediately after the Liberation he began to signal himself above all with roles as antagonist or as a handsome tenebrous.
Soon in the theater, also thanks to the choices of Luchino Visconti who initiated him to both classical and modern theater ("A tram that is called desire") together with Paolo Stoppa and Rina Morelli, he is a star while at the cinema despite important titles ("Riso amaro") will have to wait until the end of the 1950s to have the first name on the bill.
It happens when Mario Monicelli discovers his comic talent with "I soliti ignoti" of 1958 and since then he will pass from triumph to triumph also for the actor's ability to blend in like a chameleon in the different faces of the Italian: histrionic personality, flexibility in diction of every dialect, irrepressible physique, Vittorio Gassman (in the meantime the surname has lost the last letter) enters the club of the "colonels of comedy" by right.
He will take the famous nickname of Mattatore after the success of the homonymous television program in 1959. As a dramatic actor he has great international confirmation after King Vidor's "War and Peace" (1956), but they are the comedies and the association with directors such as Risi, Monicelli , Scola to build his myth;
perhaps also for this reason he will never leave the theater wearing the classic clothes he loved most, between Greek tragedy and William Shakespeare.
Making the list of his masterpieces is even embarrassing from "La grande guerra" (Mario Monicelli, 1959) to "Il sorpasso" (Dino Risi, 1962, his most beloved and nuanced role) from "I mostri" (Risi, 1963) to "L'armata Brancaleone" (Monicelli, 1966), up to "We loved each other so much" (Ettore Scola, 1974).
There is no shortage of dramatic films such as "Dear dad", "The desert of the Tartars", "The terrace" and above all "Scent of a woman" which earned him an international applause and the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
It's just one of the many accolades he kept at home as occasional knick-knacks,
from the 9 David di Donatello to the Nastri d'Argento, Grolle and Globi d'oro up to the Lifetime Achievement Lion of the Venice Film Festival which consecrated him in 1996. International cinema was more stingy with him despite the esteem of authors such as Robert Altman.
In fact, perhaps he was the first to be intimidated by contexts that he did not fully control and was always looking for his way home on the stage.
This was after all his "autumn as a patriarch" when he thinned out the sets (his performance in Scola's "The family" is memorable) to take refuge in poetry recitals, in the training of young actors (his "Bottega" directed to Florence from 1979 to 1991), in the very popular Dante's readings.
His stormy love life with three official wives (after Nora Ricci, the
It is not possible to put boundaries on his talent which often aroused fear not only in his workmates, but also in his directors;
but everyone can confirm his generosity on stage, the humor pursued with tenacity to please and please, the depth of his inner research, the fear of old age, the loyalty of friendships.
Today an unreachable giant appears and perhaps only Pier Francesco Favino tries to tread in his footsteps.
But it is precisely the marvelous uniqueness of him that makes him now more modern than when he was reaping successes at a charging pace.