Foul-mouthed, irreverent, cynical, MarioCioni, or rather Cioni Mario to give himself a tone, son of that Florentine countryside made up of people's houses, construction sites and card games amidst blasphemies, thinks that Berlinguer will be the one to save everyone, starting a revolution that will solve his problems and the wicked wasters with whom he associates.
He is the character played by Roberto Benigni in the film Berlinguer I Love You, directed and written by Giuseppe Bertolucci in 1977.
But why this fascination of Cioni for the secretary of the Communist Party?
It will be revealed by the Oscar winner himself, who will be on La7 for the first time, special guest of Corrado Augias in the special episode of the Tower of Babel entitled What remains of Berlinguer?, broadcast on Monday 4 March at 9.15pm.
In the interview with Augias, Benigni will introduce the broadcast - for the first time and in its full version - of Bertolucci's film, also starring Alida Valli and Carlo Monni.
Berlinguer I love you was released in cinemas on 6 October 1977 with a ban on children under 18 years of age, in particular due to the abundant use of profanity and irreverent and disturbing language, and was received lukewarmly by the public, also due to the lack of distribution throughout the national territory. and for censorship on TV.
In 1988 the film was released again, but in a shortened version of about five minutes (in particular, Cioni's countryside monologue was cut).
Since then only this second edition was published on both VHS and DVD.
The complete 1977 version will be released on VHS in 2000, while in 2006 the complete two-disc DVD edition will be released in Italy, with a 50-minute making of on the second disc.
During the episode of the Tower of Babel, Walter Veltroni will also intervene to retrace Berlinguer's great political and human trajectory and ask himself what remains of him 40 years after his death, to complete an evening in memory of one of the most beloved political figures in republican history.
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