Actress, writer and producer. Chiara Francini, who has just celebrated 46 years in a Japanese club in Rome by singing karaoke – the photographers who were there mention the bastions of Orione Blade Runner – does everything, often with excellent results. Next challenge: Cupid’s voice, TV movie broadcast on 30 December on Rai1, at 9.40pm. She plays the protagonist: Cecchi Paola (she always presents herself like this), a slightly gruff but romantic truck driver. In short, a story of feelings. At his side are Giorgio Marchesi and Michele Rosiello, Roberto Scorza, Mattia Procopio and many others. The direction is by Ago Panini.
Three years ago she defined herself as “very hungry for life and everything”: is it still the same now?
«Yes, as I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten worse: I’m more and more hungry and more and more idealistic and wanting to do it my way. I’m never satisfied.”
In the Rai1 film your character inherits the vehicle, and therefore the job, from her truck driver father: did you do anything else, at least when you were young?
“Certain. When I was studying at university, to learn English I went to London and there I worked for a period as a waitress in hotels, then in Florence I worked as an employee in the personnel office of an electrical engineering company. Sometimes I falsified the income of workers and employees, because if they arrived late they withheld money from their salaries. They already earned very little, like me.”
Did he actually drive the truck on set?
“No. I get along well behind the wheel, also because my father was a driving school instructor, but these beasts are huge and scary. At most I held the steering wheel to go straight. We filmed in Sila, in Calabria, a splendid land but full of roads with a thousand curves.”
After her monologue on women at the 2024 Sanremo Festival, she did a prime time show on Rai1, “Forte e Chiara” (from the name of her 2023 autobiographical book), which was abruptly interrupted after two episodes: did she end up on some blacklist, did she pay for it in any way?
«I don’t think so. It was a great project, from which I learned a lot. It wasn’t that bad, a lot of people liked it. It was a great experience thanks to which many people got to know me even better.”
She herself said that she had exaggerated, that she had made “a gin and tonic without tonic”, right?
«It was actually an experimental variety show with very different and contrasting elements: from Cardinal Ravasi to Cristina D’Avena. For me, however, they were the right ones, I claim everything I did. That project belonged to me and belongs to me to the core.”
Has he done the right thing so far?
«I don’t do these calculations. I follow my own path, I go on my own.”
Are you by any chance registered with some infamous Italian cinema club that is talked about a lot?
«I am only registered in the registry office. I’m a free fighter, I have many friends in the world of cinema but more than clubs I’ve always loved girotondi.”
By the way: invited to talk about Resistance and Years of Lead, themes she addresses in her latest book “Oaks don’t make lemons”, she intervened in Atreju talking about dialogue to be accepted always and in any case, effectively giving a jab at the secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, which didn’t go down well: if one day the mayor of Genoa, Silvia Salis, were to step forward to lead the Democratic Party and asked her to get into politics, how would she respond?
«I went to that meeting because it seemed interesting to talk about the disasters of fascism, and also because I’m always for discussion even if there is the risk that it could become friction, but I didn’t want to criticize Elly Schlein, personally I also find her very nice».
She was the godmother of Salis’s marriage to the Roman director Fausto Brizzi with whom she made two films, “Maschi against females” in 2010 and “Females against males” in 2011: if Salis asked her to get into politics, would she accept or not?
“Never. For me, being involved in politics is a very important thing and in my case it means exclusively acting and writing with maximum commitment, dealing with important issues such as women’s rights, violence, etc. I express my militancy like this. I could never do anything else.”
Years ago she said she felt like a parvenu: is this still the case?
«Of course (laughs, ed.). I am a provincial and I come from the town (Campi Bisenzio, in the province of Florence, ed.), to which I owe everything I am: an enriched, graduate and talented. Forever proudly parvenu.”
Is happiness something you frequent every now and then?
«I do a job that I love, I believe in justice, I live with passion. Yes, sometimes I’m happy.”
As an actress, she’s been giving herself a solid nine for some time: has everyone noticed how much she’s worth?
“I’m good, you have to ask the rest of the others who, perhaps, haven’t noticed.”
Could you have done more at the cinema?
«I’m not dead yet… I’ve made about fifty films and there’s still a lot to shoot. I believe a lot in what I do and I’m self-sufficient. I do it alone and never place the blame on others. I certainly always try to do my duty in the best possible way and always with maximum freedom. And all this both when I act and when I write books or articles (for the newspaper The Pressndr)».
With six books you have sold more than 150 thousand books…
“In my opinion there are more than 250 thousand.”
…with these figures did you expect to be nominated for the Strega Prize by your publisher?
«I am a best-selling author and have always had wonderful reviews. I don’t know why I was never nominated for Strega. I’m not complaining, though, it’s fine.”
Do you like Checco Zalone?
«Of course, it’s wonderful. I haven’t seen this latest film, Buen Camino, yet, but I hope it receives the wrath of God. I find him a super intelligent man, he brings cinema back to a collective experience. When a film is good, it gets seen and gives meaning to everything.”
In 2024, with your new company, Nemesis, you produced the docufilm “Coppia Aperta Quasi Gaperata”, based on the text by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, which you had already successfully brought to the theatre, presented at the Giornate degli Autori at the Venice Film Festival: did you have public funds?
“Yes, certainly”.
70 percent of almost 650 thousand euros, right?
«I take care of the editorial aspect, I don’t know precisely».
How much did he earn?
«I think more than 150 thousand euros. It was released in theaters on August 29th, I don’t know how many copies, and to promote it I made ninety presentations throughout Italy.”
What was the most important lesson you took home from participating in the 2024 Sanremo Festival?
There isn’t a particular lesson, I just know that it was important to do a monologue on women like that because it opened up a debate on what it means to be a woman today.”
In your approach to the things of life you always hear – and I quote you – ‘na fija de ‘na slut?
«Of course (laughs, ed.). For me it simply means being awake, attentive and connected.”
What is the defect that you have not yet managed to correct?
«I’m a finger in the ass… I’m a bit heavy, I’m an exhausting woman, I never give up. But it doesn’t seem like a flaw to me, and it’s my nature: that’s how I am.”
Is there a price to pay for being one?
«There is always a price to pay. But we need to be aware of how much is in each of us’s safes.”
By the way, do you earn more or less than your partner?
“I earn more.”
And is it a problem?
«No, absolutely. He’s Swedish, not Italian.”
Would you do a film as a director, like the one Paola Cortellesi made?
«No, never. It’s not for me, I couldn’t shoot it that well. And I want to do everything at the highest level.”
With the many things you do, how would you define yourself today?
«Chiara Francini. That’s enough.”
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