19° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
Italian Spottings 2001

ANTONELLI ENNIO? CAMPA...

ANTONELLI ENNIO? GETTING ALONG...

Country: Italy
Year: 2001
Duration: 15'


The surprise came much later, almost at the end of the second series of Stracult. One of the most ask-for character actors in Italian cinema of the 1970s, the great Antonelli, was not dead, as around Cinecitt` he was said to be. He was Braciola in Arrivano i gatti, Marino the lifeguard in Sapore di mare, and Manzotin in Febbre di cavallo. He was, nevertheless, in a bit of bad shape because of the stroke that he had 15 years ago that kept him away from cinema. Yet, Antonelli Ennio - to tell the truth - is getting along (as the walk-ons say when they catalogue the present and the absent. He was born a boxer and nicknamed Civitavecchiese after the name of his gym. Like many Roman stuntmen and character actors, he came to cinema by accident at the end of the 1950s. (He does not remember the title of his first film.) His physique and his boxer face quickly made him very active in national and international productions. We find him in the most different kinds of films. He is a sailor with a woman tatooed on his chest in Mario Amendola's Vino, whisky e acqua salata. He is a neo-zombie in Michael Reeves' The Castle of the Living Dead. He is a drum player in Don Chaffey's The Argonauts, and a spy in Alberto Lattuada's Matchless. However, it is in the comic cinema of the 1970s and 1980s that he becomes irreplaceable thanks to his hoarse voice and deadpan lines. He plays every role - baker, butcher, fellow thief with Tomas Milian or Bombolo, or father of Diego Abatantuono in Neri Parenti's memorable Fantozzi contro tutti. His lines quickly became some of the most memorable of sample pieces in our national trash heap: "what the hell do I give you"; "what the hell are you about to say"; "the last one in takes it in the…" etc. After the Vanzinas' succes with Sapori di mare he broke into television with the series, I ragazzi della 3C. Then he got ill. Villaggio resuscitated him for Le comiche (1990) and Enrico Montesano gave him a role as a seated prisoner in Piedipiatti (1991). Antonelli lives with his wife and on the Nomentana.

Biography

film director

Marco Giusti (I)

Marco Giusti (Grosseto, 1953) is a critic, film scholar, and television director whose work includes Blob, Blobcartoon, La situazione comica, Scirocco, Orgoglio coatto, Fenomeni, and Stracult. His books and essays have treated Carosello, Italian film of the 1970s and 1980s, Roberto Benigni, Massimo Troisi, Carlo Verdone and Totò. He has contributed to "Il Manifesto" and "L'Espresso" for more than twenty years.

FILMOGRAFIA

Pascali (tv, 1995), Almanacco delle profezie (tv, 1997/1998), Coatto come Mario Brega (tv, 1999, con Paolo Luciani), Il caso Piotta (tv, 2000), Il mambo del Giubileo (video, 2000), Totò 2001 (cm, video, 2000), Il maresciallo Spacca (cm, video, 2000, co-regia Manetti Bros), Stracult - In difesa del cinema italiano che spacca (tv, 2001), Antonelli Ennio? Campa… (tv, 2001), Bella ciao - Genoa Social Forum - Un altro mondo è possibile (tv, 2001, con Sal Mineo, Roberto Torelli), Garrincha (tv, 2001, con Paulo Cesar Saraceni, Roberto Torelli).

Cast

& Credits

Director: Marco Giusti.
Collaborazione: Nicola Di Gioia, Luca Rea, Francesca Todini.
Editor: Maurizio Lilli, Tommaso Liberti.
Production company: Monica Flores per Stracult/Raidue, viale Mazzini 14, 00195 Roma, Italia, tel. +39-06-38781.
Menu