Around one thousand people turned out, many of them dressed in mourning, for a funeral procession with a difference in Florence yesterday. The occasion was a “remake” of the final scene of the 1975 Mario Monicelli film, “Amici Miei”, which is set in the city and much loved by its inhabitants.
“Amici Miei” tells the bitter-sweet story of a group of friends – Raffaele Mascetti [Ugo Tognazzi] Rambaldo Melandri [Gastone Moschini] Giorgio Perozzi [Philippe Noiret] Guido Necchi [Dulio Del Prete] and Alfeo Sassaroli [Adolfo Celi] – who try to prolong their youth by carrying out pranks [zingarate or “gypsy shenanigans”] based on quickly –spoken, meaningless phrases or “supercazzole” [a coinage of the film].
At the end of the film Perozzi dies and Melandri bursts into tears, saying he would like the funeral to be “big, with a thousand people, all crying, and wreaths, bands, flags, whores and soldiers”. In fact, few people follow the coffin on a cold day. The remaining friends still manage to joke, however, saying that Perozzi was killed because he was a Mafia traitor.
Yesterday’s homage to the film was the idea of Florentine director Federico Micali who felt that organising a “last zingarata” would be the best way to pay tribute to it. The event may also have been a veiled criticism of “Amici Miei 400”, which is currently being filmed in the city by Neri Parenti to the disdain of Florentines, reports Corriere della Sera.
Micali visited Mario Monicelli and filmed a message from him for all of yesterday’s participants:
“Lucky you, who are there for a true ‘zingarata’ in the style of Amici Miei”.
Sunday’s procession included a band, a group of drum majorettes, many people in uniform and even some folk dressed up as whores, so finally Rambaldo Melandri got his wish.
Micali hopes to take the video clip of yesterday’s procession to the Venice Film Festival.
