«I argued with my wife and with Mandelli because of me. I didn’t speak to him for 7 years. Fiorello? He believed in me.”

Fabrizio Biggio finally understood it. He understood that it was his fault. It’s his fault if things didn’t go well with his wife Valentina De Ceglie and the other “idiot”, Francesco Mandelli. He confesses to Corriere della Sera that «I had the same problems I had with my wife with Francesco: I was the problem, not them. But you understand later. He helped me with the analysis: when you change yourself, you also change the world around you.”

The meeting on MTV

Two people he met at the time of MTV: «My two great loves, it was love at first sight for both of them». The first with Francesco Mandelli. «When we wrote together we breathed the idyll, the first time on set it was as if we had always been doing it, we immediately had an incredible understanding». And with Valentina? «She was a producer – she still talks about it at Corsera and I fell in love as soon as I saw her. She was very courted and I hid my love because I didn’t want to join the crowd. But after a year she collapsed.”

Even today Fabrizio feels like an idiot «Very idiot. In a positive sense. After all, we told ourselves that we are idiots.” Idiots and vulgar? «They made us feel vulgar for the character who was most successful in our films: it’s true that Ruggero says bad words all the time, but our other characters are not scurrilous. But he had to be told like this, he embodies the typology of certain elderly people who are more irreverent than young people.”

The crisis with his partner

The success ruined the relationship between Fabrizio and his Valentina for a period. «For me it was a period of great upheaval, I was fragile: that success had shaken things up inside me, I no longer understood who I was». Now they will get married: «We have been together for 23 years, on her 50th birthday, since I didn’t know what to give her I thought something big was needed. So I passed off the wedding as a gift. And I have to say it worked great.”

The argument with Mandelli

Why did you argue with Francesco Mandelli? The response again to Corriere della Sera: «The Usual Comedy did very badly even though for us it is the best film we have made. In that period we argued about everything, I called him and we met in a bar. I vomited all over him, like in a love story. We didn’t see each other again for 7 years.” Thinking about it, «today I am the one who blames myself for how I managed the relationship with him. I was submissive and he took the space I left him, I didn’t feel respected: small misunderstandings become huge if you don’t talk. Today we talk about everything.”

Fiorello

After years without light, Fiorello arrived in her life. «He told me: you have to understand that you are good – it makes me cry to think about it, really -, he believed in me. The only thing you need in this job is to find someone who believes in you.” And Fabrizio Biggio found it.

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