After embodying real characters as diverse in Italian politics as Giulio Andreotti and Silvio Berlusconi, the great Toni Servillo now gets into the shoes of the Italian playwright Luiggi Pirandello (1867-1936), winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934, in The inspiration. The great Pirandello, opening this Friday on the Spanish billboard. Under the orders of Roberto Andò, with whom he has already worked on Viva la libertad and Las confesiones, the protagonist of La gran belleza immerses himself in a story that recreates how Pirandello got the inspiration to write 'Six characters in search of an author', his most famous and innovative work, and his relationship with two gravediggers turned amateur theater actors in his native Sicily.
This is the third time he has worked with Roberto Andó. How did you propose this project and how did you feel in Pirandello's shoes?
I am interested in working with Roberto because he puts very interesting themes and arguments at the center of his cinema to which we cannot remain indifferent and which are related to politics, social unrest, culture and leads us to the conscience and sensitivity of the elderly. possible number of people with a great intellectual tension that our cinema has always had and should continue to have. Playing Pirandello, a central figure of international Italian culture who revolutionized the world theater through 'Six characters in search of an author', has meant great emotion and great responsibility. My intention was to lower him a bit from this pedestal where we had always placed him since school.
What is true and what is fiction in what the film tells, since there is no record that the characters of Onofrio and Sebastiano existed?
The incredible thing about this work is precisely that it can be imagined that Sebastiano and Onofrio are two of the many characters that Pirandello summoned in his head and that obsessed him. Probably, the fact that these two characters have never existed identifies them somewhat with the characters that Pirandello gave an audience to in his real life, as he recounts in a beautiful novel called 'Colloquii coi personaggi'. On a daily schedule, Pirandello received his characters in his studio and this is the origin of what later became the idea of the 'Six characters in search of an author'. Onofrio and Sebastiano are born alive and even interrupt people in the show because they demand to be heard and to go on stage.
His Pirandello is a shadowy observer, a sad and tormented-looking man. Was he really as lonely and humble as he represents him?
Yes, Pirandello's life was characterized by a deep restlessness that later is magnificently expressed in his works. Intellectual emotionality let's say, but in a condition of listening, of participating observation of life that does not allow you to renounce emotions, tension, communication anyway. And he somewhat links this conflict that he feels and transmits it to the viewer. We have wanted to offer an image of him not only in that intellectual restlessness but also a human image in his happy and humble environment on his return after many years to his native Sicily, which strongly nourished the imagination of him.
The film talks about that necessary commitment that the spectator and the actor must reach on stage. In the case of Pirandello, the premiere of 'Six Characters in Search of an Author' in 1921 ended in a loud boo, although it was later a worldwide success
His language was too bold for the time, and audiences always react with emotion, for better or worse. It is a fascinating aspect because it gives dimension to the vitality of a civilization. Today I believe that as a result of a simplification of the mass of information we receive about cultural events, the public often shows an interest that falls into rapid indifference. Everything ends up being the same, nothing surprises and the public does not have time to reflect.
You, who are a man of the theater. How do you see your role in these troubled times?
Theater is like a ritual that is born with man. And in moments of great social difficulties and such agitation where you feel lost, like the ones we are experiencing right now, it offers help with a human background that allows us to be together, participate in something unique and unrepeatable face-to-face. I believe that going to the theater will always be an opportunity to get out of the abyss. A theatrical performance is always different and the audience takes it home as a precious occasion, a personal experience that they have shared with many other people.
