One hundred years since the birth of Nino Manfredi, one hundred films he interpreted. In which the actor from Ciociaria gave life to very different characters: comical or dramatic, generous or abject, protective (don’t want Benigni, his remains the best Geppetto ever) or frightened. With a predilection for the characters of individuals beaten by life; even pathetic to chance, but never such as to inspire contempt, but rather compassion and solidarity. Like Stefano Liberati from Gaucho by Dino Risi, whom his friend Vittorio Gassman believes enriched in Argentina and instead finds humiliated and poor in the barrel. From the vast repertoire we are going to extract the “faces” of Nino that we prefer (as you can see, the titles are concentrated between the end of the 1960s and the following decade, the most fertile period of Manfredi’s career).
We loved each other so much (1974) by Ettore Scola
In the triad of male characters in Scola’s masterpiece, Manfredi embodies the most noble and coherent one: the porter Antonio, who remained faithful to the ideals of equality for which he fought during the Liberation. Paying the consequences. In the climate of post-war compromises, Antonio is discriminated against in hospital for his political militancy. He is also seen taking away Luciana, the girl he loves, from his cynical friend Gianni and takes a beating for her at the Trevi Fountain, during the filming of the Sweet life. The actor is perfect in the most positive “character” of the film, but also the synthesis of the disappointments of a generation.
‘Pane e cioccolata’, his cult film for the 100th anniversary of Nino Manfredi
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Bread and chocolate (1974) by Franco Brusati
In the same year as We had loved each other so much the actor hits another memorable character in one of his best films: Giovanni Garofoli, known as Nino, from Ciociaria who emigrated to Switzerland in search of a decent job. After traversìe one more frustrating than the other, the poor man tries to blend in by dyeing his hair blond and pretending to be a Swiss citizen. In the film’s key scene, which you never tire of seeing, Nino is betrayed when, attending a football match in a bar full of Swiss fans, he can’t hold back his enthusiasm for a goal from the Italian national team.
Luca Manfredi: “I’ll tell you about Nino, the artist who didn’t know how to be a dad”
by Arianna Finos
09 March 2021-
Ugly, dirty and bad (1976) by Ettore Scola
Even at the peak of his popularity, Manfredi wanted to face the challenge of – to say the least – unsavory characters (think of Girolimoni the monster of Rome), which took him out of the comfort zone of his most publicly awarded roles. In this vitriolic comedy by Scola it is Giacinto, who lives in a slum on the outskirts of Rome jealously guarding the million received in compensation for the loss of an eye. Surrounded by an enormously extended family, he will undergo an attempted murder by his snake relatives, which he will in turn try to exterminate.
Torn Me But Satisfy Me With Kisses (1968) by Dino Risi
Another cornerstone of Italian comedy, a ferocious parody of popular culture stereotypes. The barber Marino Balestrini da Alatri loves the Marchesian worker Marisa di Giovanni. Happy, the two sing lines of fashionable songs; but when their love is threatened, they imagine themselves as protagonists of a re-edition of Doctor Zhivago and attempt suicide. If Marino is a man who is constantly inadequate for events, he also does not give up taking himself for the hero of a popular novel. A small lottery win makes him utter the unmistakable sentence: “I am back as the Count of Monte Cristo … rich and ruthless”.
Nino Manfredi, 100 years of a myth. Where to celebrate it between radio and TV
by Giovanni Gagliardi
March 21, 2021-
By grace received (1971) by Nino Manfredi
In 1962 Manfredi made his directorial debut with an excellent almost experimental “short”: The adventure of a soldier, episode (taken from a short story by Italo Calvino) of the collective Difficult love. Without words, the erotic encounter, in a train, between a beautiful widow and a toy soldier was told, interpreted (credibly) by the forty-year-old Manfredi. A decade later Nino wrote and directed this sort of Italian-style Heimatfilm: a very personal tragicomic work, awarded as best debut at the Cannes Fesival. Where he plays poor Benedict, whose life is ruined by religious education. Memorable the smash song (by Manfredi himself) Long live Sant’Eusebio.
The toy (1979) by Giuliano Montaldo
Perhaps not one of Nino’s best films, but he gives you proof of his talent in dealing with a dramatic part. The screenplay (co-written by the protagonist with Montaldo and Sergio Donati) paraphrases a classic Manfredian “type”, that of the gray and fearful employee, regularly mistreated by others, transforming him into an executioner with a gun. If the weapon gives him a euphoric sense of omnipotence, however, his fate will be very different from that of the Charles Bronsons in vogue in the cinema of the time.
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