Fabriano – “Alberto Sordi secret” is released. The city of paper and the Marche Region present in the first documentary on the actor’s private life.
After yesterday’s Roman red carpetat the Casa del Cinema in Rome The film will be screened today at 7.45pm at Movieland dedicated to one of the most beloved Italian actors of all time, directed by his cousin Igor Righetti.
Curiosity and interest have been aroused by the presence among the cast of two exponents of the association “Marchese Onofrio del Grillo” of Fabriano dressed in the costume of the famous nobleman with a playful nature, made immortal by Monicelli and Sordi.
And a very special bond is in fact that between Sordi and the hometown of Onofrio del Grillo, Fabrianowhich he visited several times, on public and private occasions, always welcomed at the Villa Relais del Marchese. Link also highlighted by Marco Bruschini, director of the Agency for Tourism and Internationalization of the Marche Region who thus underlined the support for the film’s production: «Sordi for Italy is a recognized figure and represents the average Italian, clearly the Marchese del Grillo is the exemplification of this Sordi who is liked by all generations and therefore it is clear that Atim and the action of promoting the territory can only shine a spotlight on Fabriano, the city of the Marchese del Grillo and on the friends of the Marchese Onofrio Del Grillo association».
The film which is in cinemas from today traces these and many other anecdotes and revelations. Taken from the book “Secreto Alberto Sordi” written by the journalist and Rai presenter Igor Righetti, cousin of the actor – who is also the director and screenwriter – and published by Rubbettino editore, now in its 11th reprint. After all, who better than a family member like Igor Righetti who attended Alberto Sordi together with their respective families can truly know the facts and background? A work that shows him like each of us, with strengths and weaknesses.
Righetti directed a credible and well-assorted ensemble cast with great agility and naturalness. The director reveals to the spectator, for the first time, the childhood and adolescence of his cousin Alberto Sordi who called him nephew. And he does so by drawing on the many memories experienced firsthand or narrated by his father and his grandfather Primo Righetti in family life situations together with the national Alberto. «I told them through film scenes shot in black and white, set between 1920 and the end of 1930, in costume and with vintage cars – says Righetti – which, thanks to the exceptional cast, will excite and bring many laughs to the spectators. Furthermore, seeing Alberto as a child so determined and willing to make enormous sacrifices in order to make his dream of becoming the greatest actor come true will make us understand many aspects of his personal life.”
The documentary film, exciting but also very funny, is composed of a documentary part with the unpublished interventions by friends and relatives of the actor including the director Pupi Avati; the announcer and TV presenter Rosanna Vaudetti; Totò’s granddaughter Elena de Curtis; the king of paparazzi Rino Barillari; Patrizia and Giada de Blanck; Sabrina Sammarini (daughter of actress Anna Longhi); Tiziana Appetito and Alessandro Canestrelli (sons of the still photographers of dozens of films by Alberto Sordi, Enrico Appetito and Alessandro Canestrelli senior); Jason Piccioni (son of the composer and musician Piero); the actress Piera Arico (wife of Gastone Bettanini, great friend and first secretary-agent of Sordi until 1965) and daughter Fiona Bettanini; The Secretary of State for Tourism of San Marino Federico Pedini Amati; the publisher Cecilia Gremese; the director of photography Sergio D’Offizi; the mayor of Sgurgola (the town where Alberto’s mother, Maria Righetti, was born) Antonio Corsi; the journalist Luca Colantoni; the chef of the “Marchese del Grillo” relais Emanuela Della Mora; Fabio Bianchi (former president of the Marchese del Grillo association), family photos, videos from the Luce Institute and original audio.
This part is intertwined with another where the narration becomes a filmic story with real characters, in which Alberto Sordi’s childhood and adolescence in the 1920s and 1930s is shown thanks to the performances of actors and actresses loved by the general public such as Enzo Salvi, Fioretta Mari, Emanuela Aureli, Maurizio Mattioli, Daniela Giordano, Dado Coletti, Mirko Frezza, Daniele Foresi, Lorenzo Castelluccio, Emily Shaqiri, Vincenzo Bocciarelli, Fabrizio Raggi, Valerio Mammolotti, Moira De Rossi and three kids of different ages who impersonate the actor (Marco Camuzzi, Flavio Raggi and Daniel Panzironi). “In the film part I stopped at Alberto when he was seventeen, on his return to Rome from Milan, because the biggest mistake that can be made, and it was made by another film that not coincidentally was a flop – is to imitate him, perhaps putting prosthetics on the actor who plays him to make him look like the national Alberto. His fans would go berserk. There was only one Alberto Sordi”.
There is also the extraordinary participation of the dachshund pet influencer with 47 thousand followers on Instagram Byron Righetti. A biopic in which nothing is fiction, a product of fantasy, but where instead the dialogues, situations and characters retrace the real and unknown life of Alberto Sordi to the public. An international project, also in English and Spanish, in which for the first time the millions of fans around the world of Alberto Sordi will discover his family life.
The docufilm will remain exclusively in cinemas until February 2025. It will then move to national and international television platforms and networks. An excellent opportunity to discover Alberto Sordi off the set, from interviews and official television appearances. The documentary film shows Alberto Sordi as a man, with his strengths and weaknesses.
Vhis conflictual relationship with his father who didn’t want him to become an actor is describedhis attraction to nobility, his jealousy of his possessions, his undisclosed loves, his flaunting of culture – which he knew he didn’t have – through antiques and the collection of books he had never read, his total dedication to his profession, his choice to have very few friends, his great affection for animals, his obsession for houses and the wonderful villa in Castiglioncello. And woe betide anyone who calls him Albertone.
The documentary is proudly and deliberately independent, as it was made without tax credit. The community has not paid a single cent to give life to this international project supported, however, by private sponsors.
Partner of the project preciselyamong others, the Tourism and Internationalization Agency of the Marche Region, the “Relais Marchese del Grillo” and the Marchese Del Grillo Association of Fabriano.
