Ssecond and last appointment on Rai 1 with the film series As long as it ends well. Tonight it airs from 9.30pm Better late than neverthe social and romantic comedy directed by Giuseppe Curti with Lorenzo Richelmy, Gabriele Cirilli and Sergio Assisi. Marco is an actor who, overwhelmed by controversy after having offended a colleague on set, is canceled from every production. To try to clean up her image she decides to hold a theater course in a women’s prison.
Among the inmates he finds Ariannaa love that he sacrificed in his youth after entering the Academy of Dramatic Arts. The confrontation with the women in prison and with his ex will push him to come to terms with his past and above all with who he has become. Even for Arianna, having found Marco again will mean rewinding the tape and regaining her strength to look to the future.
Better late than never: film plot and previews on Rai 1 and RaiPlay on 31 May
Marco (Lorenzo Richelmy) is a successful actor with a narcissistic character who, after humiliating a young novice colleague on set, ends up at the center of a media storm. The accident costs him dearly: he is excluded from productions and his career suddenly seems to collapse. To clean up his image, on the advice of his agent (Sergio Assisi), reluctantly accepts a proposal that has been pending for years: hold a theater course in the women’s prison of Bassano del Grappathe place he had left some time ago chasing the dream of becoming an actor.
To welcome him is his aunt Tina (Emanuela Grimalda), a social worker with great investigative intuition and always ready to give life advice. The experience, however, turns out to be much more difficult than expected: instead of finding enthusiastic admirers, Marco has to deal with a group of disillusioned and sarcastic inmateslittle interested in his notoriety.
Lorenzo Richelmy in “Better late than never”. (Courtesy press office)
Among them is Arianna (Marianna Lancellotti), his childhood lovewho ended up in prison for an affair linked to the family business. The relationship between the two is marked by old wounds: Marco, who had moved to Rome years before, had promised that he would returnbut he never did.
Will love blossom again between Marco and Arianna?
The first lessons are a failure, but as time passes the theater workshop becomes for the inmates a space where pain and anger can be transformed into creativity and hope for the future. For Arianna it represents the opportunity to fight to prove her innocencewhile Marco rediscovers the authentic meaning of his profession and his life.
Making everything more complicated is Francesco (Gabriele Cirilli), Arianna’s lawyer, whose behavior seems to hinder her more than help her. In fact, he invites her to negotiate. On the improvised stage of the prison, between emotions, secrets and second chances, Marco and Arianna will be forced to deal with the past and wondering if their love has a future.
Lorenzo Richelmy and Marianna Lancellotti. (Courtesy press office)
Better late than never: the cast with Lorenzo Richelmy and Gabriele Cirilli
Lorenzo Richelmy plays Marco, a narcissistic actor who rediscovers his childhood love, Arianna (Marianna Lancellotti) ended up in prison on charges of money laundering. Someone framed her. Marco will make her heart beat again and help her to find the strength to fight for herself and her future.
Eccentric and brilliant, Aunt Tina (Emanuela Grimalda) is a point of reference for Marco: she raised Marco after the loss of his mother and after his father had changed his life.
Camilla Filippi is Lucia, with a hard look and a rebellious soul. She is the most provocative of the group of prisoners who attend the theater workshop. Behind this attitude lies a vulnerability that she herself fears to admit: a need for love never recognized. Gabriele Cirilli plays Arianna’s lawyer, while Sergio Assisi plays Marco’s agentan elegant, cynical and pragmatic man who knows the rules of the entertainment world well: image is everything.
Better late than never is a romantic and social comedy
«The story distances itself a bit from the concept of pure comedyalso approaching deeper social issues such as the deprivation of freedom – declared the director of the TV film Giuseppe Curti – prison, in fact, is a main actor, and the challenge was to tell it without making it a romantic story which had, by necessity, to remain lively and fun.”