L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 6 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS colorful and extraordinary as he was. He wasn't only an actor, an interpreter, a cha- racter-actor. "Sordi was the greatness itself of Italian art," Francesco Rutelli, former first-citizen of Rome declared in 2000, when he gave Alber- tone his tricolored sash and made him mayor for a day, a present that the Capital, and Italy all, had wanted to give him for his 80th birthday. In t h a t o c c a s i o n , a f t e r f o u r hours of hand-clapping, pho- tos, ceremonies and boun- cing around the Campido- glio, he distilled in a joke the very essence of a commu- nity's identity, something that, today, really makes us understand why he was — and always will be —-our "Albertone nazionale," from North to South: "A Ruté. nun je 'a faccio più. Non vedo l'ora di levarmi 'sta fascia. Io h o e r e d i t a t o a l c e n t o p e r cento l'indolenza dei Roma- ni" (Ruté, I've had enough. I can't wait to get rid of this s a s h . I 1 0 0 % i n h e r i t e d Romans' indolence). To be honest, though, he wasn't all that indolent, if you think he started working very young, moved by the sacred fire of t h e a r t s . A c t o r , d i r e c t o r , c o m e d i a n , s c r e e n w r i t e r , c o m p o s e r , s i n g e r , v o i c e actor, musician, journalist; h e w o r k e d f o r r a d i o , T V , theater, almost until the end, collecting an incredibly long list of successes, pages and pages of filmography. Il Centenario — Alberto Sordi 1920-2020 is a unique exhibit set in the actor's ico- n i c v i l l a b y t h e C a r a c a l l a B a t h s — a n a r c h i t e c t u r a l jewel bought in 1954 and opened for the first time to the public — and in the Qui- rinale's Teatro dei Dioscuri: spaces where the tale of Sor- di's long career develops and where, at the same time, his most private side is also pre- sented through objects, ima- ges, videos, clothing, curiosi- ties and never-before-seen documents. From his perso- nal theatre to his gym, from a curious personal barbershop to his office and his bedroom, all the way to the large halls embellished with De Chiri- co's paintings, bought direc- tly from the artist with whom Sordi was friend. A sanctuary that is also a museum filled with autograph scripts, radio plays, films of all kinds, the Harley Davidson of Un Ame- ricano a Roma, pictures that tell us about Sordi the bene- factor and Sordi the dog and horse lover; about his inten- se, but unstable relationship with women and his fame as a golden bachelor (taken: a l w a y s . M a r r i e d : n e v e r ) ; about his passion for the history of cinema, with his c o l l e c t i o n o f m o r e t h a n 20.000 pieces. At the Teatro dei Dioscuri, the focus is on Sordi's perso- nal "American myth," which is the other face of the same coin, that is, the way Italians see the quintessential Ameri- c a n . B u t t h e r e i s a l s o something else, something that can help reflect on what we've been discussing. In Storia di un Italiano '79-'86, a 1970s TV show w h e r e o u r c o u n t r y w a s described, Sordi abruptly enters in our collective ima- gination, because he brought to our screens, with his cha- r a c t e r s a l w a y s b a s e d o n profound attention to social changes, the portrait of an e r a , g i v i n g u s b a c k o u r history in the years from the Second World War to the economic boom of the 1960s. T h i s i s w h e n h e b e c o m e s relevant for our discussion about identity. Because, always led by t a l e n t e d d i r e c t o r s a n d screenwriters, he managed to portray the desires, hopes and disappointments of 20th century Italy, he gave a face to the "average Italian," even if he showed, at the same time, an absolute unicity, a versatility that can't be labe- led and that is typical of a man and an artist well above s t a n d a r d s . T h i s i s w h a t makes him special and ico- nic. His movies and his "typi- cally Italian" characters are mirror to society, they are authentic and ironic portraits of an epoch, of which Sordi, with profound lighthearted- ness but also with the neces- sary ferocity, defines flights and falls, hopes and disillu- sions, human heights and misery. Today, it's important to watch his movies, so that we can confront ourselves with them and understand where we come from, who we were a n d h o w w e u s e d t o l i v e . They are functional in this I t a l i a n H e r i t a g e M o n t h because they exemplify Italy, they translate Italians, they place us in front of all that corollary of Italian vices and v i r t u e s w e e i t h e r c a r r y around like a badge of honor, or we are ashamed of. I n 2 0 2 0 , S o r d i ' s I t a l y seems centuries away, yet that black and white tale is only a few decades old. It tells us about how and where o u r g r a n d p a r e n t s a n d parents lived; about the belly of the country which many Italian-Americans of today come from and the social horizon where they grew up; about the mind map with which they interpret America and its reality and the rea- sons behind their professio- nal redemption. But Sordi's Italy is also memory: it's memories of the country we left behind and of stories our relatives would tell us on the phone; it's quick trips home with the labored and useless s e a r c h o f o u r r o o t s i n a landscape that is no longer the same we had left behind. Watching Sordi's movies is u s e f u l a l s o i f w e w a n t t o understand what's in the mind of those Italian-Ameri- cans who left after having grown up in Calabria, Pie- monte, Abruzzo: there, they still have memories, emo- t i o n s a n d l i v e l y t i e s w i t h Italy. Coming to terms with our r e c e n t p a s t i s e s s e n t i a l , b e c a u s e t h a t ' s w h e r e a r e roots are. Not because there is a month in the year that reminds us about our Italian heritage, but because if we start reading a novel from the middle, we'll never get the plot in its entirety. "Sordi has been a great p r o t a g o n i s t o f c i n e m a , because his history turns into culture through the recurren- c e o f t h e m e s a n d v a l u e s , ambiguity and amorality, pretenses and small acts of piety," says art critic Mauri- zio Porro in the catalogue of Il Centenario exhibit. This is the point: coming to terms with culture. And Sordi, as a popular icon, help us look at ourselves in the mirror, all the while giving us enough distance to be critic when necessary. "Today, there is no Alberto S o r d i . S o m e o n e l i k e h i m couldn't exist. There is no actor who would choose, in full complicity with directors, to portray the average Italian — who became much, much worse in the meanwhile — in h i s p r i v a t e f u n c t i o n s o f husband-single-seducer or public functions of traffic cop-moralist-detective-doc- tor-taxi driver, and even of mafia man, as in a beautiful but neglected movie by Lat- tuada." This Italian prototype, is the quintessence of Italianità, the term of comparison, the means of contrast, the mirror that helps us reflect and that can make us feel more or less Italian. We can identify in those characters, see oursel- ves in each bitter, human or funny smile; we can recogni- ze behaviours in the Italians we meet during our summer holidays, discover the com- mon traits that keep together all Milanese, Romans or Sici- lians. With Sordi's films, we can walk through Italy's long p o s t w a r p e r i o d , f r o m poverty to reconstruction, to the boom and the dolce vita, all the way to working class protests and, then, to the deep nostalgia for a time that n o l o n g e r w a s , w h e n w e approached the new millen- n i u m . O r w e c a n d e n y t o have been "just" like that. In both cases, it means we did come to terms with our Ita- lianità. A special thanks to the Cineteca Nazionale – Centro Sperimentale di Cinemato- grafia di Roma, for its pre- cious collaboration in sour- cing photographic material. Continued from page 4 Understanding our heritage is an important part of being Italian (Photo: motortion/Dreamstime)

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