Cinema has always been part of the career of Fabio de Luigi, even at the beginning of its success on the small screen. He was born as a comedian and made himself known above all thanks to his participation in the various editions of Never say… with Gialappa’s Band, playing many original, hilarious and over the top charactershowever reaching true fame in the early 2000s. In the meantime of Engineer Cane’s irreverent inventions (“one thousand thousand”), of the intellectual Guastardo (“ah, bullfighting!”), by the Clown Baraldi (“Hello children!”), by Olmo, MedioMen or Bum Bum Picozza, all irreverent and unconventional masks, De Luigi continues his journey on the big screen already started in 1996, taking part in numerous productions, always in supporting, character or choral roles.
It was Dario Migliardi who offered him his first starring role in 2002 Any Aldoand from there the actor did nothing but carve out more and more space for himself in Italian cinema, decreasing his television presence to also pursue the dream of directing which was later realized with tiramisu in 2016, moreover in a totally authorial form. With over 35 films under his belt, an impressive array of original characters, numerous participations in various streaming and TV shows and three feature films entirely written and directed by him, Fabio de Luigi is today one of the most loved, recognizable and versatile talents in local entertainment, whose best films are spread across thirty years of honored career. Let’s discover them together.
1. All the Moron’s Men (1999)
Written by Paolo Costella and created by Gialappa’s Band in their film debut – as co-writers -, All the moron’s men is a concentrate of the crazy and derisive humor of the group’s television programs starring many fetish comedians, including obviously Fabio de Luigi. It is an ensemble film entirely commented off-screen by Gialappa’s, where a mismatched group of namesakes find themselves competing to inherit the funds of the multinational video game producer of the eccentric entrepreneur Leone Stella (Maurizio Crozza), who in order to choose his successor invents an exciting free-for-all challenge. Yes, it seems like the Italian forerunner of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, both cult and scult of our cinema, very funny, unexpectedly inventive and obviously irreverent.
2. It’s Yesterday Already (2004)
Great example of a local remake of an American cinema classic. Written, re-adapted and directed by Giulio Manfredonia with the approval of Harold Ramis and Danny Rubin, It’s Already Yesterday is the remake of Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, replaced for the occasion by Antonio Albanese. The story is practically the same, just set in Tenerife, equally funny, intelligent and functional. In the movie De Luigi plays Enrico, a shy cameraman at the service of the protagonist and great sidekick both from a comic and dramatic point of view, especially reflective. It is perhaps here that the actor’s real interpretative potential begins to be concretely glimpsed, capable of many different nuances outside of the typically more comedic roles covered up to that point, at least the most important ones.
3. As God Commands (2008)
First and important collaboration between Fabio de Luigi and Gabriele Salvatores, which after the critical and public success of I’m Not Scared returns five years later to transpose a novel by Niccolò Ammaniti onto the big screen. In How God Commands the parental theme is always at the center of the story, but the setting and staging change. A story of the province and of the poor that moves within the complex relationship between an alcoholic, racist and unemployed father and his son under the protection of social services. A film that leads to hardship and crime but also in redemption and love, where a convincing De Luigi plays a social worker named Beppe Trecca in a rounded and well-tailored role for him, both severe and comfortingbest characterized by the actor and well directed by Salvatores.
4. Happy Family (2010)
After a series of cinepanettoni, the first film with Fausto Brizzi and the collaboration with Pupi Avati, in 2010 Fabio De Luigi returns to work together with Gabriele Salvatores in the successful Happy Family. The work is taken from the theater piece of the same name written by Alessandro Genovesi (of which it later became an acting fetish) and in turn inspired by Pirandello’s classic Six Characters in Search of an Author. De Luigi plays the screenwriter Ezio, an author in creative crisis, a bit lazy and wealthy, with a funny, amused but also dramaturgically solid attitude. When he takes part in a lively family dinner, then, his new project suddenly begins to take shape, especially looking at the characterization and relationships of the characters, curiously similar to his relatives. Thus begins a meta-cinematic but also literary game that teases the viewer’s attention and invites him to enter Ezio’s world suspended between irony and reflection, in a feature film that looks at 8 and a half by Fellini, ai Tenenbaum of Wes Anderson, the Usual Suspects and the theater of Berkoff and the aforementioned Pirandello.
Review Happy Family (2010)
5. The Worst Week of My Life (2011)
The first cinematic synergy between Fabio De Luigi and Alessandro Genovesi arrives just a year later Happy Family with The Worst Week of My Life. The film finds some themes dear to the author, especially family and relational ones, but it goes beyond dramaturgy and cultured cinematographic quotations, simpler and more immediate, an all-round comedy. Takes a lot from Let me introduce you to mine and it is still an Italian remake of the British BBC sitcom of the same name, but Genovesi manages to make the most of De Luigi’s comic talent, which here returns to being the protagonist without too many dramatic nuances. The story is simple: the employee Paolo must meet the rich bourgeois family of Margherita, who he has decided to marry. The event is the driving force of many hilarious skits and catastrophic and irreverent events for the credibility of the protagonist in the face of a high and judgmental social class, but also of amusing misunderstandings. A light and functional film which also opened the doors to a sequel, albeit a less successful one.
6. The Golden Men (2019)
Second film written and directed by the talented Vincenzo Alfieri, The golden men (read the review) is inspired by the true events of the Turin post office robbery, which occurred in 1996 and is still considered today one of the bloodiest and most brutal of Italian history. Alfieri divides the feature film into chapters, winking at Hollywood genre cinema, and chooses some of the most well-known male faces of our cinema, including Fabio De Luigi, staging a tense and gripping heist movie with a direction that is not at all obvious. De Luigi’s performance was excellent, in a different role than usual, disturbing and controlled, severe and intelligent. Beyond the references to Armored by Nimrod Antal or TheTown by Ben Affleck – however centered and functional – The golden men it’s one of those films that is unfairly passed over too quickly. Really interesting.
7. 50km per hour (2024)
Third film as director (and author) by Fabio De Luigi, 50km per hour represents the current high point of the entire career of the multi-talented star, which in fact combines more or less all the features of his comedic, directorial and interpretive style in a nostalgic, funny and exciting feature film on the road. Above all, the strong and unexpected on-screen chemistry with Stefano Accorsi elevates the relational detail of the product, generating a continuous confrontation between the two protagonists which sometimes leads to emotion and other times to laughter. A truly successful film, 50km per hour, which tells the story of two brothers who decide to spread their father’s ashes in Cervia by embarking on a journey in Ciao throughout Emilia-Romagna. A path along which the two remember a bond that was unjustly dormant for some time, finding each other again and rediscovering an almost forgotten affection between clashes and revelations. As written in our 50km per hour review: “A fun and entertaining comedy that does not hide (male) feelings, but rather exploits them to create a profound relationship between the story and the audience“.
