It was January 1982 when “Borotalco” was released at the cinema, a film directed and starring Carlo Verdone, with the talented Eleonora Giorgi in the role of Nadia Vandelli and Angelo Infanti in the role of the unforgettable Manuel Fantoni.
40 years have passed since the first screening of that film that managed to tell the habits and customs of a constantly changing country, with its styles, fashions and pop icons that would have exploded, to become the debut and symbol of transgression, as in the case of Moana Pozzi. The idea was to tell the 80s in various shapes and colors, starting from the music that represents an essential element in those years. Lucio Dalla becomes, therefore, the undisputed protagonist with his songs and his story is intertwined with that of the protagonists of the film.
“Borotalco” comes to the cinema with a totally different approach than its lucky predecessors. There were no more characters and no wigs, voices or grimaces. The story centers on two door-to-door encyclopedias sellers. One is called Sergio Benvenuto and is clumsy, unable to complete sales, lives in a boarding school with his friend Marcello (played by Christian De Sica) and has been engaged to Rossella for many years. The latter's father, Augusto (played by Mario Brega), asks his son-in-law: "Will you marry her or don't you marry her mi fija?". Sergio timidly replies that he wants to marry his beloved: "Just the time to get in a little gear". The father-in-law, not happy, points out to his son-in-law that he has been trying to get into work for four years and that in the shop, where he had shown previously, he has already gotten everything going. Unforgettable jokes that have remained in the history of Italian cinema.
A film that wanted to tell the naivety and the lightness of an Italy that was struggling to get up after the terrorism of the 70s, the tensions that sowed deaths and the strong rifts within democracy, still to be healed. Wounds to mend, in a period of great historical change.
Today Rome has changed. There are no longer the ladies who exchange greetings and advice from the windows early in the morning. Perhaps rarely are these gestures of subtle social kindness found. It all boils down to a like, a comment on social media and, at worst, an insult.
Angelo Barraco
