Qfour David di Donatello and a Nastro d’Argento. These are the awards won by The strangeness, movie of 2022 directed by Roberto Andò, starring Toni Servillo in the role of Luigi Pirandello, broadcast tonight at 9.30pm on Rai 1. The cast also includes Ficarra and Picone.
The strangenessmovie plot
The story begins in 1920. Luigi Pirandello has recently published The late Mattia Pascalwith which he received good feedback from the public. He returns to his homeland for the birthday of his friend and colleague Giovanni Verga. As soon as he arrives in Girgenti, in the Agrigento area, he discovers that Maria Stella (Aurora Quattrocchi), the nurse who raised him, has died.
In honor of the affection that binds him to the woman, decides to organize an important funeral. He turns to Sebastiano Vella (Salvatore Ficarra) and Onofrio Principato (Valentino Picone), two sui generis undertakers. Neither recognizes him and they tell him they are busy staging an amateur theater show. Furthermore, they have set up an unpretentious country company.
The writer is going through a rather critical personal moment. He is not yet the Nobel Prize winning playwright, he manages as best he can to earn enough and above all he has to deal with the mental illness of his wife Antonietta Portolano. The material difficulties of everyday life exacerbate his creative crisis. And the meeting with Sebastiano and Onofrio has a positive outcome. He has some characters in mind that he would like to work on and who, after all, are always there in his head to torment him. It could be the right opportunity to give them life.
“The strangeness”, Ficarra and Picone (Lia Pasqualino)
Luigi Pirandello and the premiere of Sebastiano and Onofrio
He doesn’t know, however, that Sebastiano and Onofrio lead two lives very distant from his. Nofrio has inherited the funeral home business from his father-in-law and is stuck in an unhappy marriage. Bastiano, however, is not marriedhe entertains himself by frequenting the village brothel and he exercises excessive control over his sister Santina (Giulia Andò). She is jealous and doesn’t want men to get close to her.
When Pirandello begins to frequent the company, he has to deal with the rather ambiguous affairs of a municipal employee who manages to postpone Maria Stella’s funeral. And then also with the personalities of Bastiano and NofrioThat they represent the members of the ramshackle theater company well.
Despite the distance that separates them, the writer almost finds comfort and inspiration in the two gravediggers. He doesn’t abandon the project and we get to the day of the premiere. The Sicilian Filodrammatica Company Principato e Vella debuts at the Teatro di Santa Lucia. Pirandello does not participate, he only watches secretly, and this event too is marred by adversity. Of all people, the municipal employee is convinced that in reality he is the protagonist of the play and interrupts the show to protest.
The drama continues when Fofò, who has always been in love with Santina, discovers that she is Nofrio’s lover and that the two plan to run away together. Fofò reveals everything to Bastiano, who goes into a rage, but on the stage. Pirandello witnesses what appears to be an unconventional comedy, to which the audience reacts with amusement. It is in that moment that the creative streak finally makes itself felt again.
“The strangeness”, Toni Servillo.
The strangenessthe ending and the cast
Six months pass and the balance has changed. Bastiano is still in Girgenti, while Nofrio has moved to Catania together with Santina. Both they receive an invitation to attend a premiere at the Teatro Valle in Rome. The sender is Pirandello and the show is titled Six characters in search of an author. The two meet again on the train and during the journey they find a way to make peace.
It is 1921 and the play does not receive unanimous approval. Indeed, at the end of the show some of the audience protested, calling it a joke. Pirandello is forced to flee with his daughter, but a moment before leaving the theater he asks the stage assistant if the tickets for Onofrio Principato and Sebastiano Vella have been collected. Here comes the strangeness, with a final twist.
The assistant knows nothing about it. Bastiano and Nofrio, however, reappear in the theatre, empty and dark, and feel satisfied that he has fulfilled his duty. In the official papers there is no trace of the two gravediggers and who knows if they are the fruit of the writer’s mind. What is certain is that Six characters in search of an author it would become one of Luigi Pirandello’s greatest successes, earning him the Nobel Prize in 1934.
The cast is completed by Donatella Finocchiaro, Luigi Lo Cascio, Renato Carpentieri, Rosario Lista, Galatea RanziFausto Russo, Aldo Failla, Mario MIgliucci, Tuccio Musumeci, Angelo Del Romano, Tiziana Lodato and Brando Improta.
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