“I am an animator”

The actor arrived in town in the afternoon to premiere the movie “Umberto D.” Directed by Vittorio De Sica.

The vision of cinema in the past and his long artistic career are the common thread in the discourses. Hundreds to hear it in Piazza Garibaldi

Liko – actor, director, screenwriter, comedian; Foundation in the Italian film scene: Charles Verdon It is said in one Garibaldi Square Packed, an estimated one hundred people, during the penultimate event of Lecco Film Festival. And his speech, like a good laughing artist, began with a joke that immediately aroused laughter and applause: “Thank you for such a wonderful welcome, I am moved. I am always amazed at the way you ask me for my autograph. There is some elegance: ask permission, if you can steal two seconds from me For a selfie. In Rome, on the other hand, they gave me a pat that pounded my back (in Romanian dialect, ed.)”.

Fans, movie lovers and the curious began to take their seats on Sunday evening in front of the specially prepared theater, several hours in advance. Verdon granted himself interviews and, before the intervention, selfies and autographs. The people he was joking with later.

The moment continues: Between entertaining stories and backstory on the collections, Verdone relived years from his career. From the start with experimental films, with a camera bought for 70,000 lire by raising family members: “They were pictures that came to life from dusk till dawn, they were all abstract, they were visions, a little psychedelic.” Send “Poetry of the Night” to a competition in Tokyo Twenty-five days later a telegram arrives: You won the first prize, ”continues the actor. thenRossellini meetingwho believed in it.

For Verdun, it’s a return to Lecco Film Festival The festival organized by Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo and supported by Confindustria Lecco and Sondrio. Last year, Covid stopped his “in-being” arrival in the city: Verdone, however, did not want to miss the opportunity and, in a video connection, presented the public with one of his most beloved films, Carl Theodor Dreyer Ordet.

Verdoni arrived in Lecco in the afternoon: his presence filled the Cinema Nuovo Aquiloni at 3.30 p.m. where his speech pre-empted the screening of the film. “Umberto D.” by Vittorio De Sicawith an introduction by Rosario Tronolone, editor of Vatican Radio –
Vatican News. In Verdone’s words, there is all the exciting vision of the cinema of the past and the strong connection with De Sica’s work.

On the other hand, in Piazza Garibaldi, the meeting is informal: a conversation amid applause and above all laughter. The interview is moderated by Marina Sanna and Valerio Sammarco of Rivista del Cinematografo.

Verdon’s essence may be summed up in the sentence uttered during the latter: “I looked for stories from the shoemaker, from the shoemaker… I saw an interesting human apparatus, the jokes, the tics, the defects, the weak causes.” I didn’t become a voice impersonator, I became an animation impersonator And I tried to bring them with a magnifying glass to the audience.

Photo gallery of the meeting in Piazza Garibaldi

Photo gallery of the meeting at Cinema Nuovo Aquiloni
(Photo by Alessandro Menegazzo)