SSeparated for a lifetime, Carlo and Sandra talk to each other constantly, see each other, support each other in the tasks of daily life. Indeed, it is above all she who helps him. Until priorities change and Sandra decides to take care – above all – of herself. In the second season of Life as Carlothe irresistible autobiographical series starring Carlo Verdone (from 15 September on Paramount+), the ex-wife Sandra, played by Monica Guerritore, 65 years old, “raises her head a little”, but always with affection and without denying the willingness to listen.
In the midst of a sentimental crisis, however, she does not miss the first hearing of her lawyer son, who decides to go against the Ostia crime scene, and lends a hand to her ex-husband who finds himself looking for domestic help (here, however, Sandra causes trouble) in a complicated moment because his new film isn’t going ahead.The hallmark of the second season is, as in the first, lightness. You can breathe, you laugh, you empathize with the characters. Monica Guerritore, great interpreter of passionate women like Emma Bovary, The she-wolf or Giovanna D’Arco to theater and cinema, she is perfect in this – almost – new role for her.
Mrs Guerritore, in Life as Charles 2 it feels like home. Is that so?
Carlo surrounds himself with friends, which is why it’s easy to film with him, the actors can invent their own lines. He works in peace, relax.
Monica Guerritore, 65 years old. She will be in Life of Charles 2, on Paramount+ starting September 15. Photo by Azzurra Primavera
She knows Gianna, Verdone’s ex-wife. It won’t have been easy for her to take his place.
Gianna is a very strong and witty woman. She and Carlo talk several times a day, they are a couple, even if everyone has the same life as her. There is a great affection, the same that Carlo has towards his friends, it is in his nature. He relies a lot on Gianna, in the first season when they tamper with the door of the family chapel in the cemetery, she is the one who takes care of it. The first season is closer to reality, in this one I tried to rebel and invented a rebirth of her.
Before Vita da Carlo she played Fiorella, Francesco Totti’s mother, in I was hoping he would die sooner. His debut in Roman dialect.
Fiorella is a Roman mother who always protects her son, she does everything. I had to learn Roman dialect, my theater actors helped me. One day she calls me Carlo and says: “Aò, I’ve known you for many years but I didn’t know that you also laughed”. And I: “Have you seen Totti?”. At that point he asks me to play Gianna. I reply: “But Gianna kills me! I’m joking: I’m coming in a hurry, you don’t even have to ask me.” I talked about it with Gianna, we laughed about it, that’s how it went. In the second season I’m a little more rebellious but the effect still seems nice to me.
Monica Guerritore, Romanity and truth
After two entertaining TV series, in his next work, the film about Anna Magnani, he will change tone. Is the only link between these characters Romanity?
Romanity and truth. FiorellaTotti has a simple way of speaking which also helps in the interpretation of Anna Magnani. She has a normal, authentic voice, without the fixed gazes of some dramatic roles. Anna Magnani was bourgeois, but she created her characters without superstructures, without showing studied attitudes. Five years ago, before Fiorella and Sandra, I wouldn’t have made it. In life things come one after another, like a pearl necklace. There is a thread, you just have to abandon yourself.
He is bringing the film’s script to theaters and streets. How come?
It’s the first time it’s been done, the idea is popular sharing. I’m used to living with the public. Anna Magnani did the same, who started in the theater and returned there when the cinema abandoned her. The film is on its decline, after the Oscar win. She who was funny and messy, becomes skittish. But she returns to the theater with The she-wolfdirected by Zeffirelli, and was a resounding success.
A role that is dear to her, she was the protagonist of her ex-husband Gabriele Lavia’s film in 1996.
When I was shooting I had Anna Magnani’s photo next to my bed and I looked at it constantly.
This film will be his first film direction, after many theater directions. Why did you decide?
When you talk about the lives of others you cannot write a biography. You need to approach and fill the spaces with your own words. I felt called. In 2023 it will be 50 years since his death. She was the greatest, she was marginalized and fought for the dignity of her profession. She had written screenplays that no one read. She struggled as a mother and as a lover. The world loves her, while here we only have photography exhibitions. All this brought me to Lupa, and to Rome. During one of the readings at the Quirino theater Andrea Purgatori came. He became curious and wanted to review the script. Anna is Andrea’s latest film and we will dedicate it to him. Filming will begin on April 24, 2024, when I will have finished directing and acting in theater Ginger and Fredfrom the film by Federico Fellini.
He directed many plays.
I write and direct the things I want to say to the public. Giovanna D’Arco I wrote it in 15 days, in 2004, and I kept it going for 15 years. The last ones are The good soul of Sezuanfrom Brecht, where I took up a direction by Strehler, and Husbands and wivesby Woody Allen.
Monica Guerritore, Carlo Verdone and Caterina De Angelis in Vita da Carlo 2.
After the pandemic, theaters filled up, cinemas didn’t, if we exclude the phenomena Barbie And Oppenheimer. Why?
We have understood what to bring to the public. I had taken the rights to Anonymous Venetian, but it wasn’t the time. Instead The good soul of Sezuan it’s topical, because the theme is how you become evil in order to defend what little you have. The theater audience is solid and can become a communicating vessel for cinema. Instead, cinema has focused on kids and big events, or on banal comedies. Who has made good receipts? The strangeness Roberto Andò’s film about the meeting between Luigi Pirandello and an amateur theater company. There is a need for heart, for warmth, for lives that are not ours but become ours.
In What I know about her (Longanesi) recounts the death of Giulia Trigona, aunt of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, killed in 1911 by her former lover. Haven’t you thought about making a film out of it?
I thought of the book as a film, it has my actress gaze, with many doors that open up to the final one, which Giulia shouldn’t have opened, because you shouldn’t go to the last appointment. A woman who finally walks away from an aggressive man feels secure, and it is that security that betrays her.
On Ig he wrote: « I read about the absurd proposal of castration. As if the man’s violence against the woman resided in the member: if it is cut, one becomes docile. Violence to violence. Stop”. What to do, then?
The rape in Palermo has been talked about too much and the posts have acted as a sounding board. Enough. Silence is needed. Let’s think about that girl. These crimes should be treated with the utmost confidentiality. Kids should remain closed off, having time to reflect, process, and be ashamed. A long process, away from the spotlight. They don’t know how to identify with each other because they don’t read stories, they don’t go to the cinema, they don’t get emotional. “Conscience is a muscle that needs to be trained”, said Cardinal Martini. The lever to move feelings is the story. Otherwise everything remains on the surface.
He started working 50 years ago. The character that remained in your heart?
Maybe the first one I wrote, Joan of Arc, who has a heart, mind and soul and says: God is with me. This is spirituality, which is very important to me, I add Shen Te, the protagonist of The good soul of Sezuan, who wants to be with the man she loves while he only wants money, and she becomes evil to protect herself. Shen Te eventually returns to herself, but she remains alone. In the staging all the actors eventually come forward on stage, as if in an embrace. Sharing is the way to rebuild. You have to wear earplugs so you don’t hear bad things from a general or a minister. We must not allow ourselves to be polluted. Anne Frank said: I continue to believe in the intimate goodness of man.
At 15 he was already on stage in The Cherry Orchard, directed by Giorgio Strehler.
People ask me if I’m Guerritore’s daughter. It’s me, except I started a long time ago.
Mrs. Guerritore, how is your relationship with your body today?
While doing theater I didn’t have such an invasive relationship with the face like that of film actresses. I always had the perception that what I heard reached the public more than what was seen. The paradox is that as a young girl, when I was beautiful, I was full of creams, nail polishes and make-up. Little by little I threw everything away. I’m careful, I do yoga, pilates. But I am against cosmetic surgery, partly out of fear and partly because things go where they have to go. In my body and in my face it is all me, the skin is soft, it changes with age. What do you want to stop, time?
Her husband Roberto Zaccaria, former deputy and former president of Rai, is president of the Italian Council for Refugees. Do you share his commitment?
Of course, we have the same values. I see how he and the 20 women at his side work. They protect, feed, provide documents, teach a trade that helps refugees or brings them back to the country with a voluntary project. of origin. These women are wonderful and Roberto is good, he has relationships with the institutions. He defends the rights of people who have no voice.
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