This year in Italian movie theaters Sherlock Holmes is beating the crap out of Christian De Sica, the Italian Christmas movie king, and people seem surprised. Could it be that Italy has just had enough of his nonsense?
Last year everybody talked about his Natale in Sudafrica, Christmas in South Africa, doing not as well as expected and I thought maybe he’d gotten the hint. Sadly, he did not – he tried again this year, with Vacanza di Natale a Cortina (Christmas vacation at Cortina), and it’s an even bigger flop. In the first weekend this year’s lowbrow joke showcase opened with 1.6 million euro, compared to last year’s Natale in Sudafrica, which opened with 3.2 million, the one the year before, Natale a Rio, with 3.3 and the 2009 Natale a Beverly Hillsat 3.5. There’s a pattern, it’s a downward spiral, and it doesn’t look good for De Sica. The critics say that this year’s is slightly better than the others, but that the movie going public has just lost faith in the genre.
De Sica has a theory: He says that people are finding it hard to see him in the role of a man who is jealous and not cheating on his wife – like he was in all the other films.
I have a theory too: Those movies are horrible and they should stop making them. Move over, De Sica, for people like Checco Zalone, and others like Aldo, GIovanni and Giacomo, actors and filmmakers who are truly funny and don’t rely on vulgar, slapstick, and outdated humor. Retire, and let them make the Christmas movies from now on.
I Love Italian Everything 