Wertmuller, Giannini: “In Italy little recognized, they always rewarded me”

“I lived with her, I made the best films with her, the last time I heard her she said to me ‘Giancarlino, I’m writing a screenplay, are you going to do it with me? “. Giancarlo Giannini entrusts to Adnkronos his memory of Lina Wertmuller, who passed away today at 93, to whom a long and stellar artistic and human partnership binds him. “If it hadn’t been for her I wouldn’t be here. She’s the one who built me. It all started for fun, the first films we made during the summer while I was doing theater we shot them in twenty days, and they worked on them. extraordinary actors, such as Giulietta Masina, Rita Pavone “, recalls Giannini. “I, who consider myself good, did everything he told me – Giannini remembers – He had an extraordinary inventiveness. He had worked with Fellini, he had a crazy imagination and his stories were beautiful and also very easy to act, because she wrote them. for those who acted, and it’s a very difficult thing to find today. ” The actor, unforgettable interpreter of ‘Pasqualino Settebellezze’ and ‘Overwhelmed by an unusual destiny’ directed by the Roman director, recalls: “We took the film and went to America to show it to a friend of ours who had five cinemas and New York, and from there it all began “. Giannini then makes a controversial hint about Italy:” Fortunately he won an Oscar: the Americans really understood it, in Italy it was not so rewarded, they always rewarded me, they gave me all the awards. She was always put aside a bit, instead she was a great director. It is thanks to Lina that for ‘Pasqualino Settebellezze’ they gave me the star on the Walk of Fame: it is not something that they have everyone. And it’s thanks to Lina. ” The actor will remember her like this: “I was lucky enough to meet a woman who forged me, whom I esteemed so much that I did everything she told me. She was courageous, we did everything, sometimes they made fun of us, sometimes No. Woody Allen was crazy for her, he had the covers of all the major American newspapers, they compared her to Bergman, to Fellini. And I was born with her. More than that …. “, he concludes with emotion.