Biography of Roberto Benigni

Hymns to life

October 27, 1952 The popular comedian toscano, beloved around the world, was born on October 27, 1952 in mercy, in the province of Arezzo. Still very small he settled with his family in Vergaio, in Prato, a small town not far from that Christmas. Open personality and infectious cheerfulness, Roberto Benigni hears very soon the need for new experiences, to travel and see the world; especially feel the desire to show off and make people laugh, which gives him a heady taste. The step from "representations" private to public ones is short. The Italy has plenty of theater companies more or less known, often fruit of the collaboration between fans, and Benigni adheres eagerly productions increasingly drawn from actor size although he prevails by far the vein comedienne. It is thanks to participation in several shows, and later to the television series "Onda Libera", which produced the famous comedian. After some appearances in supporting roles is Giuseppe Bertolucci, and in 1975 he writes with the monologue "Cioni Mario di Gaspare fu Giulia", staged at the teatro Alberichino di Roma, the teatro more alternative and avant-garde of the time. The immediate and growing success of the show led him on tour to Italy. The monologue is revived and reworked by Bertolucci in 1977 and transferred to the screen in the movie Berlinguer ti voglio bene ". This film nowadays has become a real cult, mainly because of the hardships that have marked and elevated Benigni in awkward and rebel (image that over time will go edulcorandosi). Some scenes in the film are pushing some censors of the time-those of the Christian Democrat-Italy to stigmatize the film, preventing its spread in the halls. On the other hand also the critics don't clearly takes sides on the benign and is left without a substantial moral support. From now Roberto Benigni becomes a niche, a Goblin character able to overturn the rules and result in delicious choc wherever it appears. The great popularity came in 1978 with Renzo Arbore "another Sunday", in which the comedian appears in the guise of a bizarre and completely unique film critic. Then follows the interpretation from the film by Marco Ferreri, "seeking asylum". In 1980 has the Sanremo Festival and takes part in the films of Abel "Il Papocchio", followed a year later by "the soup" by Sergio Citti. Hitherto Benign hasn't had experience behind the camera, but he directed plays often in squares or at the festival of unity. In 1983 he starts to take hold even the directing of his productions: "disturb me" a title that leads the way to great popular success of "we can do is cry," played with Massimo Troisi and offering a series of gags and catchphrases that have the power to enter into common language while still remaining today. During the filming of "Tu mi turbi" cesenate actress Nicoletta Braschi: knows would become his wife on December 26, 1991, at which time the actress will appear in all the films directed by Benigni. In 1986 the loyalist Bertolucci directed a feature film titled "Tuttobenigni", an anthology of live performances conducted in different squares of Italy which is today a real manual for aspiring young comedians. It's the turn of American experience: is directed by Jim Jarmusch in "down by law" (opposite Tom Waits and John Lurie), bizarre and thin film which quickly is also entitled in the category cult. Later, still in the international arena, is the protagonist of an episode of "taxi drivers at night" together with internationally renowned actors like Gena Rowlands and Beatrice Dalle. In 1988 the Italian box office sends in tilt Benign movie "the little devil" alongside a sacred monster like Walter Matthau. The year after participating in the latest film by Federico Fellini, "La voce della Luna" and accept with enthusiasm the role of Narrator in Sergei Prokofiev's musical tale "Peter and the Wolf", accompanied by the European Chamber Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado. It is the 1990. The following year, out on the screens "Johnny Toothpick" and sign a record of receipts for Italian cinema: people lining up at the box office and everywhere is content to see him standing while entering the room. In 1993 he played the secret son of Inspector Clouseau in "son of the Pink Panther," a play by a master of the genre, that Blake Edwards always held up as an example of smart comedy. Still eager to develop projects autonomously, shortly afterwards it was the turn of "Il mostro" directed, starred and produced by the same Benign: while not getting criticism, the success of the movie follows the wave of Johnny Stecchino. In 1998 came the real international consecration with the highly acclaimed (but also by several parties disputed): "life is beautiful". The film raises a real Hornet's nest because of the subject matter, that of the deportation of Jews during World War II. The lens choice is not the "trivially" dramatic: the script uses an unusual mixture of tragicomic, which in fact only increases at different points in the emotion for the havoc that the immense tragedy resulted. Criticism and disquisitions of futile aside, the film triumphs in the 1999 edition of the Oscars, winning the figure not only in the category "best foreign film" but also as "best actor". Memorable explosion of joy of Roberto Benigni at the announcement of his name by Sophia Loren, a scene that surely will remain in the annals of Chronicles (the comedian toscano leaped even on the armrests of chairs in the room where they were gathered all the Hollywood stars). Among the other awards "life is beautiful" also collects the grand jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as 51 indirectly of the more than 16 million people who put on Rai Uno to follow their first broadcast on tv, setting a record of plays hardly surmountable. After this exploit the next effort is full of fun and lightness: choose to appear in the French film "Asterix and Obelix against Caesar", next to a giant like Gerard Depardieu and neo-Laetitia Casta diva. In August 2001 starts the processing of "Pinocchio" movie released in theaters in 2002, written, directed and produced by the same benign, and who has the record of being the most expensive film ever in the history of Italian cinema. The film was quite successful; a small controversy where one accused Roberto Benigni had not included on posters on behalf of Carlo Collodi: the comedian toscano responds: "Collodi is an absence that more presence you can't, it's like saying that the Bible is based on the novel by God. Everyone in the world knows that Pinocchio is Collodi. " His 2005 film, is titled "the Tiger and the snow" once again blockbuster. The film proposes, with the method already of "life is beautiful", story of another tragic context, the war in Iraq. In the film with Roberto Benigni and Nicoletta Braschi, appear Jean Reno and Tom Waits. A special relationship binds the actor with the Dante's Divine Comedy: Benign often holds readings on the subject in universities and Italian cities, and is highly regarded for his recitations of entire songs of memory-strictly-poem. From 2006 door travelling around Italy his reading Dante in a tour called "Tutto Dante", then adapted for television and finally landed in some Italian prisons during 2007. In 2011 is invited as a special guest at the Sanremo Festival 2011, on the occasion of the 150 anniversary of the unification of Italy: in his long monologue addresses the exegesis of the Italian national anthem. His speech, full of feeling and inevitable irony, is followed on television by a huge number of people, more than 15 million.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.