Davailable from today on Netflix, Snake relatives it’s the early Christmas gift of the streaming platform. A very black comedy capable of making you laugh with bitterness, and reflect with irony on the sacredness of the family institution. AND on the squalor and selfishness that regulates human behavior. Even those of the people theoretically closest to us.
Snubbed by the public at the time – curiously it came out in March and not during the holidays – the film, based on the play of the same name by Carmine Amoroso, has gained (deserved) cult fame over time thanks to its reruns on TV. Also thanks to a cast in a state of grace which perfectly embodies the meanness and stereotypes of our society.
Stirring Italian comedyof which Monicelli was the “inventor” in the 1960s, to one English-style black humor, Snake relatives And a timeless classic but above all very current. Like the society and human misery he describes.
Snake relatives streaming on Netflix, the plot
Sulmona, Christmas Eve. At the house of the elderly spouses Trieste (Pia Velsi) and Saverio (Paolo Panelli) like every year the four children and their respective families arrive from various cities following. The two daughters I am Lina (Marina Confalone), librarian in Teramo, married to the vulgar Michele and mother of little Mauro, and Milena (Monica Scattini) depressed housewife and Filippo’s wife. The male children instead I am the communist Alexander (Eugenio Masciari), husband of the lively Gina (Cinzia Leone) and father of Monica, and the last born Alfredo (Alessandro Haber), bachelor professor in a girls’ high school.
Everything seems to be going well – between lunches, pots of lentils, tombolas and midnight mass – when, as in the best tradition of every family, all hell breaks out during Christmas lunch. Like an earthquake, Grandma Trieste announces that she and Saverio no longer feel like living alone and they would like to be hosted by one of their children. No one, as expected, wants to take them but everyone would instead like the comforts of their pension, the furniture and, obviously, the house that contains them. Between disagreements, envy, accusations and little big meannesses, the tragedy unfolds in a hilarious wayuntil a surprising final solution.
The location of the film and the Squilla party
The film was shot almost entirely in Sulmonaa town in the province of L’Aquila, but initially the setting was planned in nearby Lanciano, in the province of Chieti, hometown of screenwriter Carmine Amoroso. However, due to the “fault” of his play Amoroso, he really quarreled with his family of origin and decided to change the location, however maintaining in some scenes of the film lots of references to LancianoFor example the morselsa typical dessert from the nearby Castel Frentano, and the Squilla festival. A “unique” party which has only been celebrated there since 1607, when the archbishop of Lanciano, on the eve of Christmas, began to go on a pilgrimage to the small church in the Iconicella district, to recall the journey of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem. A journey accompanied by the ringing of the “Squilla”, or the bell of the civic tower.
Mario Monicelli together with the cast of “Parenti serpenti”. (IPA)
Curiosities about the cast, from Gaber to Haber
Famous film and theater actor, Alessandro Haber was not initially slated for the role of Alfredo, the son who reveals his homosexuality to his family after years. In fact, Monicelli had wrote the role specifically for Giorgio Gaber with whom he had worked on the film Rossini!Rossini! a few months earlier. Gaber, however, didn’t want to know and in a 1991 interview with The Republic, he used vitriolic words to justify his refusal.
«It’s a senseless story: […]. There’s even a scene where I’m supposed to slice some vegetables while singing a Mina song. I don’t want to fall so lowI would never forgive myself. In my opinion, Monicelli should also let it go, he is much better than this project” Gaber said. With hindsight we can say that even the greats make mistakes sometimes.
As for the Trieste matriarch, the choice fell on Pia Velsi, a famous showgirl in the 1940s, in the golden age of variety. However, Mario Monicelli spoke some time ago, in an interview, about he chose her almost by chance since he thought she was already dead. Substantially extending her life considering that Pia is still alive and will turn 100 next March.
Cinzia Leone’s drama and the mystery surrounding Vincenzo Anniballi
Irresistible actresswith crystal clear comic talent, Cinzia Leone a few months before the release of Snake relatives had a revelation that changed his life forever, also heavily influencing his future career. It was December 26, 1991during the premiere of Women with skirts by Francesco Nuti, and the actress – who in Snake relatives plays Gina, Alessandro’s snobbish wife –, she suffered a sudden illness that took her to hospital in very serious conditions.
She was diagnosed with a congenital aneurysm and had to fly to Phoenix, Arizona to undergo a delicate surgery. Unfortunately, as a consequence of the operation, the left side of the body remained paralyzed even if over time, Cinzia he managed to recover almost completely. About a month ago, in an interview with The Republicthe actress however declared that after the slow recovery after the stroke almost no one called her to act at the cinema or on television. And that is only in recent years slowly managed to returnwith humility, in the world of entertainment.
Dramatically then, about a couple of months before the cinema release of Snake relatives, the actor and long-time character actor Francesco Anniballi – who in the film plays the small role of a worker in the opening scene – he was killed in Rome by a gunshot to the back. A crime that still remains unsolved today.
Cinzia Leone, Marina Confalone and Monica Scattini in a scene from “Parenti serpenti”. (IPA)
The cult phrases from the film
Lina: Look who we see again, Rosa Giannetta, she went all the way to Saudi Arabia to be a hustler! Milena: At least she’s traveled the world. Lina: Yes, she learned her skills!
Gina (giving as a gift the legendary dolphin-shaped corkscrew): It’s a fine object, for classy people… do you like it?. Lina: You have fulfilled a dream!
Michele: Hello grandfather! Always smart eh?!. Xavier: I haven’t had a bowel movement in four days.
Milena: Of course this Christmas really came with all the trappings.
Gina (criticizing his daughter for eating too many sweets): But I’ll leave it alone and I’ll come up with a provincial ass!
Alfredo (watching Loredana Bertè on TV): I wonder how the hell an athlete like Borg managed to get together with someone like her.
Lina: You’ve been with a woman for ten years and you haven’t told us anything? But who is she? What is she doing? What is his name?. Alfredo: His name is Mario and he’s a vigilante. What do you want me to tell you? At a certain point I realized that I like cock.
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