Between Vincenzo Salemme and Max Tortora it's The War of the Grandparents - Cinema

There are those who swear that a new comic couple was born, the non-vulgar one with the right timing composed of Vincenzo Salemme and Max Tortora. They are the two protagonists of The War of the Grandparents by Gianluca Ansanelli, in cinemas from 30 November, distributed by Medusa on 300 screens. Deliberately mentioning the combination of Tommy and Gerry, we thus find in this comedy Gerri (Salemme) in the role of an attentive, caring grandfather with a passion for furniture restoration who, together with three grandchildren, lives in the house of his daughter Federica (Ana Caterina Morariu) and son-in-law Ernesto (Luca Angeletti). Into this perfect family balance bursts the exuberant and boisterous paternal grandfather, Tom (Max Tortora), who after years of living abroad returns to Italy to enjoy his grandchildren too. Needless to say, between the two grandparents there is immediately war to win the affection of the grandchildren and also a little the heart of the beautiful young neighbor Viki (Bianca Guaccero). The duo is joined by the young Gaetano (Herbert Ballerina), an eclectic courier who seems to have only one impossible mission: to try to rejuvenate grandfather Gerri. "These two grandparents are like cats and dogs, and we liked them to be reminiscent of Tom and Jerry, which is a cross-cutting quote to younger audiences. In short, we loved the idea of contrast, putting in place as an added value two extraordinary actors who have at the same time a comic and a sentimental chord, two territories that are often antithetical," says the Neapolitan director in his fourth film After All'ultima spiaggia (2012), Troppo napoletano (2016) and Benvenuti in casa Esposito (2021). What is comedy? "You can tell when you've done something right when you hear people laughing," says Vincenzo Salemme, "there are no formulas or secrets. Even vulgarity can work if you make people laugh, I prefer to make people laugh without vulgarity, anyway there are no recipes". With regard to political correctness, Max Tortora replies: "Who is it that decides what can and cannot be said? There's no body, no one authorized to do it." "To say political correctness is already wrong. We should be 'culturally correct' and not politically. If not, it may happen that there is a political party that says that you have been unfair and another part that does not." What does it mean to be a grandparent when both of you are not even parents? "Too often we forget that there are scripts in cinema, you don't necessarily have to be inspired by someone. You act according to what's written on the script, it's our job. I'm certainly not a grandfather inspired by my own," says Salemme. Finally, Ballerina says: "I'm happy with this film also for a very personal reason, I have a different comic line, more aggressive than usual and then working with Salemme was a real gift for me. The film is also nice for another reason: it explores a bit the rift that exists with grandchildren because now between social media and smartphones the generational gap is really huge and it becomes difficult to be parents and, even more so, grandparents".

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