- 13 minutes reading‘
ROME.- The appointment is at three in the afternoon in a “villa” in the elegant Aventine neighborhood, where his film studio and home are located. They invite us into a bright meeting room where, in addition to a table and chairs, there are mannequins wearing women’s dresses. Each one has a label: Life is beautiful; The monster; Johnny Palillo…
When he arrives, punctual and with his clown movements, Roberto Benigni, Smiling, warm, humble, he greets and tries to memorize the names of the three journalists summoned. Dressed in a gray suit, shirt without a tie, sweater and very colorful sneakers – “lately my foot hurts and I have to wear them” – he immediately shows that he is the same one that one sees on stage or on the screen. He pours out that energy and force of nature that have made him one of the greatest figures of Italian art and culture. He says that among the costumes of great “amorous” value that are exhibited in the room is also the one worn by his wife, partner and muse, Nicoletta Braschi, on the night they received the Oscar for Life is beautiful. “But even if she puts on a rag, Nicoletta always looks like a princess,” she exclaims.
73 years old, Benigni just presented, on December 10, a new one-man show that was all the rage in Italy, seen by more than four million people on the first channel of RAI. It is about Pedro, a man in the windan incredible two hour monologue about the figure of Saint Peterthe first apostle, the first pope, who the capocomic interpreted in a stage set up in the Vatican gardens, in the shadow of the imposing dome of San Pedro.
Produced by Stand By Me and Vatican Media, it is another one-man show in which that modern minstrel named Benigni once again overflows with talent, mastery, humor, and emotion, telling the story of the imperfect fisherman who followed Jesus to transmit his revolutionary message of love to the world as no one had ever done before.
In the half-hour interview, only questions could be asked about this new creation that, in truth, was born from an idea of Pope Francis, Benigni revealed. Speaking, as is her style, in cataract mode and with a Tuscan accent, she confessed to having fallen in love with Pedro, the first “follower“of Jesus, although the most vulnerable and full of doubts, from whom he learned that one can fall and get back up if there is love. In the conversation he also admitted that he is not the same Benigni from his youth because “it changes, everything changes”, as he sang Mercedes Sosa. Although for him there is something that never changed: his love for Nicoletta.
-Why, after Dante, now a monologue about Pedro?
-Actually, the most beautiful thing is that it didn’t come from me, but rather it came from outside. I received news from the Vatican that there was a request from Pope Francis. Since it was the year of the Jubilee, Francis said that something needed to be done about the first pilgrim and who is the first pilgrim? Saint Peter! And then they told me that Francisco thought of something international and thought “Roberto.” Roberto called me, and asked: “Couldn’t Roberto Benigni do it”? They immediately called me, they asked me: “Roberto, would you do something about Saint Peter that Francisco wants?”… And Francisco and Pedro together Oh mama! How could I say no to them? And then this was transmitted to Pope Leowho immediately also said yes…
-How did you prepare your text?
-About Saint Peter I knew those few things that everyone knows, that they always imagine him gray-haired, old and with the keys in his hand, although he was a young man of approximately 27-30 years… I remembered some episodes of the Gospel in which he appeared unsuitable… So I reread the Gospel of John, I began to read all the essays about him written at all times and I fell in love with Pedro, who was an almost illiterate fishermandifferent from Paul, who was an intellectual, but the first of all popes, the founder of a church, the pope to whom popes are successors. If we are here, if there is Saint Peter’s Basilica, if there is the Vatican, it is thanks to Saint Peter, to his politics. He is a man who, as the acts of the apostles say, his shadow was enough to do wonders and who, at a certain moment, a wind infused him with the strength of the Lord and he decided to love… Because Peter was not capable of loving like Jesus: he was like the elders of our generation, who never say “I love you” to his wife, not even a “I love you”, nothing. Pedro was like that, he had this kind of modesty, weakness, he considered it almost shameful to say “I love you”, but later, in the end he understood what it was…
-In his monologue he talks about the Holy Land, Galilee, as if he had been there. Have you ever been there?
-Yes, I was there, not for this project, but for life is beautifulbecause in Israel they gave me my first honorary doctorate in philosophy at the Arab-Israeli University of the Negev, it was full of kids, I was received as John Lennon, an incredible thing. I had to go to sleep that night in Tel Aviv; Rabin’s wife (Yitzahk) invited me because it was impossible, the students loved me so much that they would have destroyed the door… It was an incredible thing. Although I later returned for other reasons, I was a good friend of the writer Jehoshua (Abraham) and other writers. In short, I have a great love for Jewish culture, which is the foundation of our life…
“I received news from the Vatican that there was a request from Pope Francis. As it was the year of the Jubilee, Francis said that something needed to be done about the first pilgrim, and who is the first pilgrim? Saint Peter!”
-The text highlights the relevance of the message not only of Peter but also of Jesus; He talks about the fear that his message of equality, brotherhood, love for others provoked and that there is only one step from fear to hatred, something that we also see today…
-It is the only reference to the present, because Pedro is already current. I repeat, Pedro did not know what love was. It is not a banal phrase because, before Jesus, no one knew what love was. None of the apostles knew him, Jesus knew him because he is the son of God, who founded it, invented it. So that love is modern, it is new, it is a novelty and in many countries of the world they still do not know it. “I love you”… How many times do we say “I love you”, “I love” and that phrase, “love your enemy”, is perhaps the highest phrase ever uttered in the history of humanity.
-Since it is a universal message, can your monologue about Pedro be seen in other languages? I remember that you were acclaimed with your monologue about Dante in Buenos Aires, in 2009…
-Do you know who went to see my show that night? ¡Bergoglio, who was the archbishop of Buenos Aires! He came to my dressing room to greet me. And then he became Pope. Incredible! Returning to the question, yes, I hope that the show can be seen in other countries, English subtitles have already been made, so I hope that it also reaches Argentina and the world, not because of me, but because it is truly a universal message.
-After all the books and essays read to make the show, how did you go about writing the monologue?
-I write alone, but I discuss everything with my collaborators. I take notes, I show them ideas, they tell me to try this thing or that, it’s a back and forth. Because when you write about Jesus you can’t say the classic things, the typical things that priests say from the altar…
-You went from Dante to the Italian Constitution, to the Italian anthem and now to Saint Peter. What is the criteria for choosing or accepting the proposals?
-Each one comes from an element. For example, Dante, I realized that I am Tuscan, like him, I was born in the province of Arezzo, but I had always heard it from the mouths of great artists, like (Vittorio) Gassman and others; enormous performers, but none from Tuscany. Dante’s invectives with a Tuscan accent give him life and I am Tuscan, I am an actor, I have the greatest poem of all time, there is nothing greater in the world than the Divine comedy. In the world there are four great columns, at least in the West: Dante, Shakespeare, Cervantes and Homer. And they are there and then comes the great literature, they arrive Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Kafka, but it’s something else… divine comedy It’s a miracle, a miracle.
-This experience of writing and then telling Pedro’s story, what changed in you?
-Taking care of Pedro made me love him. I loved above all this fact that Jesus chose this person, who was the weakest ring but who never broke, with whom I learned that one can fall: he denied the Lord three times, three times he said that he did not know him and, as I say in the show, I would have done the same. I feel so close to him because, if he had been arrested, they would have killed him, and Christianity would not even have been born if he had not denied Jesus. Jesus knows this and looks at him with overwhelming love. And when I commit a sin, if Peter was forgiven, he will also forgive me. So, I feel it close…
-Are you a believer?
-Asking me this is like asking the Pope… I believe in God, but I believe not because of our miseries, because of our pain, but because for me, To turn to God is to express gratitude for all the wonders, the extraordinary, the beauty of life.. But how does one wake up in the morning and not be able to say thank you to anyone? Oh mama! When you feel that you are alive, then you say thank you… It is a bit of abandoning yourself; When Peter walks on water, he takes his first steps at first, but when he begins to ask questions and doubt, he sinks… You don’t have to ask yourself too many questions, but believe in God and that’s enough. I always felt this love towards being able to say thank you. And I repeat, I don’t know what this thing is, but since I was little I saw that my mother, illiterate, always had the Gospel in her pocket and opened it without knowing how to read. And I said to her: “Mom, what are you doing?”, and she told me that she understood just the same…
-What will you say to Saint Peter when you find him up there, with the keys to Heaven?
-As I said in the show, I hope that he gives me a little slap and lets me in, because I did some things… And that he tells me: “Go on, Benigni, don’t make me think twice, go, go, go”…
-It is shocking to see how you went from being funny, from making people laugh, to making people happy…
-Yes, but the two things go together. Many tell me: ‘Ah, the Benigni of the past is no longer there, he is no longer the Benigni of the beginning’, but everything changes. As it says Mercedes Sosa, everything changes, except my love: my love never changes, my love, Nicoletta, never changes. Everything has changed in my life, but of course, it is the nature of things. It would be ridiculous, pathetic, terrible, if everything were the same. So, of course I changed, it’s nice when you change.
-The original idea for this monologue was Francisco’s: what did he feel when he died, last April 21?
-Oh, it was a great loss because he was a Pope whom we all loved. It was someone who introduced himself saying “Good evening“, who knows how much he thought about what he had to say, it was understood that he had thought about it a lot – “How will I greet if they make me Pontiff?” -, it was understood that it was something that did not occur to him right there, but that he had thought about it and it was a beautiful thought. “I have to say the simplest thing” and that “Good evening“He immediately conquered everyone. What a beautiful face he had! He was Argentine and at the same time Italian, it was really a union, a wonderful face and then we were in love… I saw him the last time in St. Peter’s Square…
“When I made the presentation on TG1 (RAI news), I had a lapse and, instead of thanking Pope Leo, I said “Pope Francis”… It was a very nice lapse, very loving…”
–Yes, on World Children’s Day, when he kissed her…
-I gave him a fantastic kiss. Nobody knows that that time, before entering the scene, I arrived much earlier at St. Peter’s Basilica and they put a chair for me right next to Michelangelo’s Pietà. Inside the Basilica, I had a coffee, I reviewed my script, under Michelangelo’s Pieta! My dressing room was the real Michelangelo’s Pietà!
-At the time of the show in the Vatican gardens, did you think about Pope Francis? Did you feel his absence?
-When I made the presentation on TG1 (the RAI newscast), I had a lapse and instead of thanking Pope Leo, I said “Pope Francis”… With the idea coming from him, it’s as if he had told me: ‘You have to thank me’… It was a very nice lapse, very loving…
-How was your meeting with Pope Leo a few days ago, when you presented your one-man show about Peter?
-The meeting with Pope Leo was very nice, because when I hugged him, as he said life is beautiful It is one of his four favorite movies, I told him: “You are among my four favorite dads.” And he said to me: And who are the others? John XXIII, Pope Wojtyla, Francis and you. I knew practically everyone, except John XXIII, because he was too young. And then we talk about the divine comedy, I knew that I had done it and of the Confessions of Saint Augustinewhich is perhaps the book that most influenced the West, even the most beautiful book, the one that would take me to an island, the most important. We also talked about Chicago, because I lived there for a period, we talked about some streets, the architects…
-A curiosity: how was it born?Good morning Princess“, his phrase life is beautifulwhich became a classic, something we all use?
-It is like an invention that is in the air, because when a man loves a woman, he tells her: “You are a princess.” And it was the provisional title that we gave to Life is beautiful, because we had talked with the scriptwriter about a non-negative title, that had nothing to do with a concentration camp, but with something positive, like just that, that life is beautiful.
