Nino Manfredi and his peers Vittorio Gassmann, Ugo Tognazzi and Alberto Sordi are the most significant interpreters of Italian comedy of the second half of the twentieth century, who starred in numerous popular high quality films



Older film lovers probably remember the aforementioned actors, only Sordi being a proper comedian, while the other three built their comedy on the contrast between the typically 'normal' behaviour and unusual situations they found themselves in.

Nino Manfredi was special among them by mostly portraying common (or as they used to be called „small“), somewhat clumsy characters who were often getting into trouble or misunderstandings, trying to get out unnoticed and thus causing a series of funny situations due to their bad decisions. Manfredi was quite casual and it seemed such acting was so natural to him that it was completely effortless. Nevertheless, he achieved such masterful interpretations through a lot of work, and it took a while before he got his first significant roles. He first graduated in law, and then attended Drama Academy in Rome. He made his acting debuts in the not very successful theatre performances during the 1947. Film studio doors would not immediately open for him, so he started his film career using only his voice – dubbing foreign films. He discovered his extraordinary comedy talent in the entertainment industry, where he used his vocal and visual mimic transformations, confirmed both in radio and television, only to get small roles in his mid-thirties. After a successful start he started to get bigger roles and his interpretations improved the more he managed to suppress the overly comical elements, which, ironically, brought him such success at the start of his career.

He only partially succeeded in this, in the role of Ugo Nardi, in Nanni Loy's concept of Fiasco in Milan (Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti, 1959), a fun sequel to the commercially successful masterpiece by Mario Monicelli, Big Deal on Madonna Street (I soliti ignoti, 1958). One of the first films where his specific film comedy began to emerge (even with the plausibly added dramatic element) was Jailbreak (A cavallo della tigre, 1961) by the renowned director of popular comedies Luigi Comencini. The film was a failure already at the premiere due to its criticism of Italian economy, at the time when optimistic comedies were much more popular. Nevertheless, its value was recognised some ten years later when such type of comedy dominated the Italian production.

However, even then Manfredi sometimes overly caricatured his characters, as with his striking interpretation of a talent scout in the film by Antonio Pietrangeli I Knew her Well (Io la conoscevo bene, 1965), about the tragic fate of a young provincial woman (the excellent Stefania Sandrelli), who comes to Rome to make a career in the world of entertainment, the world the director was very familiar with and strongly criticized in this acclaimed film. A much more important film from that period for Manfredi was The Treasure of San Gennaro (Operazione San Gennaro, 1966), directed by one of the most famous, not only Italian, but also European filmmakers Dino Risi, who made ​​a very witty parody of the very popular robbery action films. Nino Manfredi, as one of the clueless leaders of such an endeavour, demonstrated his acting maturity, and in the effective scenes with the greatest comedian of the former period, the famous Toto, he clearly showed how comedy of his time had changed.

Despite his growing success, Manfredi was still not satisfied that he built his reputation primarily as a comedian, and that was probably why he directed several films to show the whole range of his acting skills. His first film as a director (in which he starred in the lead role), Between Miracles (Per Grazia ricevuta, 1971), was partly inspired by his own childhood. Although this is a drama that deals with issues of faith and the influence of religion and the church on the spiritual development of a child, as well as the personality of a mature man, the film was a great success not only with critics but also with the audience (it was the most popular film in Italian cinemas in the season 1970-1971). It was awarded as the Best Debut Film at the Cannes Festival.

In this retrospective, the range of his acting skills is evident in the comedy with elements of drama The Head of the Family (Il padre di famiglia, 1967) by Nanni Loy, and Comencini's television adaptation of the children's literary classic The Adventures of Pinocchio (Le avventure di Pinocchio, 1972) by Carlo Collodi. The director's interpretation, which took a turn from the literary template and its educational elements, taking the side of (children's) freedom against the order and discipline of grown-ups, was supported by Nino Manfredi's impressive interpretation of the old carpenter Geppeto who creates the puppet that comes alive. This was originally a five-hour TV series that was shortened to a length of a feature film to be screened in cinemas.

Manfredi was right in thinking that he would never gain full recognition of his acting skills unless he proved his talent by playing serious roles. He demonstrated his skill with the virtuoso interpretation of Cardinal Colombo, who wishes to resign from the Pontifical Court, which he considers to be the mechanism of brutal repression in the Pope's conflict with Garibaldi to keep the secular power, in the film inspired by true historical events In the Name of the Pope King (In nome del Papa Re, 1977). The film is not well known in Croatia, while in Italy it is a highly acclaimed work by director Luigi Magni. This was the only role for which Manfredi received both major Italian awards - national "David di Donatello" award, and the one awarded by film critics "Nastro d'Argento" (Silver Ribbon).

Nevertheless, only a full range of highly comic and tragic roles from his more than one hundred appearances on film, presents us with a more complete picture of the extraordinary acting range of this Italian star as well as all the shades and subtle differences within those he usually interpreted – the plain, average Italian man and his specific mentality. (Tomislav Kurelec)