Two years ago, to celebrate fifty years of his career, Gigi Proietti, who passed away in Rome on the day of his 80 years, had given the Rai1 audience “Battle Horses”, a show in three episodes to reproduce some of his highlights on video. Proietti was a master, a great interpreter of the best Roman spirit, maintaining charisma and consensus over time: he casually crossed the tradition of popular song, the dramaturgies of Ettore Petrolini, the classic television variety, the sapidity of the sketch, like the unforgettable one of ” affarologist ”Pietro Ammicca. From the trunk that accompanied him on stage came relics of the past that have marked the imagination of his numerous spectators.
–
It was hard to find such a versatile performer, a stage professional with an absolute ability to master the stage. His relationship with television is boundless. The debut took place in 1966 with The great chameleons directed by Federico Zardi. Since then, television engagements in prose, variety and fiction have followed one another at a rapid pace: in 1967 Missione Wiesenthal by Cottafavi, The partner of Majano, Small bourgeois by Fenoglio, in 1968 The naked life by D’Amico e The president by Enriquez; in 1969 Visit the war of Magliulo; in 1970 Do you know Don Quixote? by Quartucci e The discovery of America by Giordani; in 1972 The Marriage of Figaro of Sequi; in 1973 “Petrolini”, in How the Italians laughed, e Astolfo’s journey of Molinari; in 1975 Facts and deeds of Falqui (which earned him the Golden Rose in Montreux); in 1976 the television adaptation of one of his theatrical successes, My eyes, please, which he also directed, and theOedipus re by Gassman; In 1981 Fregoli di Cavara.
–
From the very beginning, television proved itself for the Roman actor an amazing means (these are his words), also thanks to the meeting with the director perhaps more congenial to him, Ugo Gregoretti, under whose direction he performed in 1967 The Pickwick Circle and in 1974 The Mompracem tigers, a whimsical adaptation of Salgari’s novel, made as part of the program “Libri in casa”. Gregoretti also edited the four episodes of Saturday night from nine to ten (1974), a show with an unusual cut, not the traditional variety with which they have been putting people to sleep for twenty years, an attempt less indifferent than usual. Since the early 1980s, Proietti has often combined the role of director and author with that of actor: after appearing in Actor my love and having been among the conductors of Fantastic 4, in 1985 he wrote (in collaboration with Mario and Pietro Castellacci and Carla Vistarini) the texts for the show Io a modo mio, which he himself conducted alongside four young actors. In 1990 he directed Villa Arzilla, the story of a group of wild old men and their retirement home. In 1992 he played A half son, in 1994 Italian Restaurant, brilliant comedy in which he played an Italian emigrant in New York.
–
Since 1996 it has enjoyed resounding success with the seriesMarshal Rocca: he soon became the most loved carabiniere in Italy, interpreting with consummate skill a figure suspended between comedy and intrigue, between crime and sentiment. In 1977, for Canale 5, the protagonist of the series The lawyer Porta. In 1998 he also ventured into television directing with the film Un nero per casa, to address the issue of cultural and social integration. He subsequently starred in fiction Never love stories in the kitchen (2004) e The vet (2005). In 2018 he was the guest narrator of Ulysses – The pleasure of discovery and the following year he conducted the inaugural event of “Matera European capital of culture” live. finally appeared in the first episode of Meraviglie – The peninsula of treasures with Alberto Angela. Proietti has always represented, with a professionalism equal only to passion, the prototype of the gigione actor, a little vain and contemptuous, but of great intelligence, giving the audience unforgettable sketches, formidable caricatures and irresistible parodies.
–
The death of Gigi Proietti
–
–
—
November 2, 2020 (change November 2, 2020 | 09:29)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
–
