I did a crazy thing today. I’d bought a ticket for a play – a murder mystery; I didn’† know much about it but I thought it would be fun. When I looked in the paper I discovered something that changed everything: “La Banda Dei Babbi Natale” was playing in one theater and for only two more days. Tomorrow I’m going to see Marco Bellocchio’s “I Pugni in Tasca” on stage and I’m not giving that up so the murder mystery had to go. I was desperate to see “La Banda Dei Babbi Natale”.
OK, I know this makes me look wasteful and/ or stupid, but I don’t care. I blew off the play and went to the movies.
It turned out to be an excellent idea. The theater was pretty far from my apartment so I left really early and walked through Borghese Park. It was packed with nutty families driving those pedal cars and narrowly avoiding losing control and killing people. When I got to the theater I was early and passed the time talking to a nice couple, Maria and Massimo, who agree with me that Qualunquemente sucked. They’d loved Sergio Castellito’s “La Bellezza del Somaro” and I’m going to try to find it before it’s gone.
La Banda Dei Babbi Natale was worth blowing off a play for – it’s hilarious. Three friends that play in a Bocce league together have three different relationship problems and one of them puts them in the position to be mistaken for three other guys who are burglarizing homes wearing Santa Claus suits. The three innocent guys are played by the comedy trio of Aldo, Giovanni and Giocomo and there are no surprises here – they are the same Aldo, Giovanni and Giocomo that we’ve loved in all of their movies. They end up in a police station on Christmas eve with Angela Finocchiaro, who plays the police inspector, and have to explain to her the events that have brought them there and why they are innocent. Angela is becoming a favorite of mine – she’s the wonderful actress we saw in “La Bestia Nel Cuore”.
La Banda Dei Babbi Natale is so Christmasy! It’s got the music, the decorations, and the sentiments that make a Christmas classic! I know I’ll be home watching it while I’m wrapping Christmas presents next year. We can only hope for US distribution because this one is great and Americans would love it.
One more thing – I’d like to say hello to Vera and Paola, the women that I sat next to at dinner last night. We got into a big discussion about movies and they love both Italian and American movies. We caused a commotion in the restaurant when we all screamed, remembering the romantic scene in Cary Grant’s “An Affair to Remember”. It was a really nice shared movie moment, and I’d like to thank them for the great conversation with my bad Italian!
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I Love Italian Everything 