Massimo Troisi, Lello Arena: «Now everyone is celebrating him but he has had so many doors in his face»

Yet in all this celebrating — never a 70th birthday postmortem has seen such a mobilization of creative, intellectual and institutional forces — something must be said.
very nice that there is this “desire for Massimo” and that everyone expresses it with their skills and talents. But you have to be very careful that everything has to do with him as a person. Troisi’s seventy would have been very important if he had been in a position to truly accomplish them. Today a posthumous party full of illustrious presences: Thanks to Enzo (Decaro ed) Federico II will give him an honorary degree on Monday and my friends Ficarra and Picone have anticipated that there is the hypothesis that the so-called spectator’s David di Donatello will be named after him. All this is a source of great joy, but for me that I lived this story and told it in a book (Once upon a time, Rizzoli ed) the time to step aside and let others reinvent it. By my high privilege her a parable in which I am very present, I shared that legend that we are celebrating today. Being too much inside it, it is clear that I have to tiptoe: be part of the party that brings it back to the screens and stages, but remain on the sidelines. After all, he himself was very reserved, intimate, private. What I could do for Massimo and with Massimo I have already done before.

And is there anything you wouldn’t do again?
I have no remorse but regrets: remorse is something that arises when you have intentionally harmed a person and you can no longer do anything to repair it. Regrets accompany us throughout life: there are things I wouldn’t do, but in the balance I am comforted by all the beautiful things we managed to do together. What I would change is a small thing compared to what I would never change in my entire life. The problem is that Massimo is no longer there: if he were still around, I’d pick up the phone and I could do better than what I did. But he is not there and his absence crystallizes the things done and those that could have been done differently. In conclusion: many regrets, zero remorse and thousands of beautiful things. And this makes me happy.

There is a certain immanence of Massimo Troisi. Without making spiritualism, with Decaro you said that even if you are two you remain a trio.
There, there… if Massimo weren’t there – I’m speaking in the present – my life would be different. He is my push, my intransigence: he taught me fundamental things that act within me. difficult to think of it as “non-existent”. I often try to imagine what he would have done in certain situations… During these festive days we have often had to face hypotheses of things “done wrong” and he would never have allowed them. Massimo changed our DNA, we are not the same as those who have never met him. And this is true for us who have stood by him but also for those who have chosen him as a source of inspiration. Ficarra and Picone keep telling me that if there hadn’t been La Smorfia they wouldn’t have even tried to do theater. When Massimo died I decided that my job would be to keep his memory alive, but even in this state he was much better than us, he didn’t need any help. Young people my son’s age who is 19 gather in homes to watch his films again. If, among all the eyes he meets during the auditions, I catch a glimpse of a look like Massimo’s, he will be much happier.

For the Campanians of the Troisi generation, or that of the 1980s earthquake, there are two dates on which we discuss in the evening with friends: where were you when the earthquake hit and where were you when Troisi died. Where was she?
Eh… I was at the Olympic Village full of colorful balloons and music because my daughter was doing her artistic gymnastics essay: I was immersed in an atmosphere of beauty and the exuberance of life. In that joy came a terrifying phone call announcing the tragedy.

Who warned him?
Gaetano Daniele… I think it was him. a terrible memory. Even today I have to deal with the fact that Massimo’s next film will not be released because the mere idea that people lived waiting for his new work, on TV, in the theater or in the cinema, was comforting. I miss this very much, an unbearable wickedness.

Her presence as an artist was encouraging for those who had nothing: she had deconstructed all conventions arriving at No Stop without scenography, with her and Decaro and four pannetti as costumes.
It was a hope for all those like us who have always felt out of place, incapable, uncomfortable, out of the game because we didn’t understand how the mechanism of the entertainment world worked. The message that arrived was: you don’t have to worry about feeling “out of place”, rather try to understand what you really are: others have to do the rest, you don’t have to sell them the goods. And this message was passed with a single digit. Massimo could say what he wanted without sounding blasphemous.

Guy?
Like how he spoke of the saints: I’m sure that if St. Francis had heard him he would have applauded too, aware that he had exaggerated his gift of speaking to birds (laughs ed): and San France’ enough now! As for Judas and torture: “I speak immediately even if they tell me: look, maybe we will torture you, I am already speaking. And if they don’t understand, I’ll even draw them a little drawing”. And we could give thousands of examples in which Massimo had the courage to speak of our human weaknesses: because we are like this.

You were crooked and imperfect and we loved this in you. Today young people are asked to be performative and photogenic in favor of social media.
Not only that: the message is being passed around that some kind of diversity is exhibited, for which dignity and tolerance are asked. Massimo’s message was another: I am like everyone else, imperfect like everyone else and therefore you must welcome me and accept only one other thing. Diversity did not enter the category of possibilities attributable to a human being: for this reason it was wonderful.

So much so that he has already done it all by himself by shooting Morto Troisi, perhaps as an exorcism. Long live Troisi. what?
Anna Pavignano and I were there too, it was more of a game I would say. made to bring in Renzo too (Arbore ed) and Roberto (Benigni ed), Michetti and Verdone and talk about himself as if he were no longer there. I had already done it in Grimace effect and occasionally we would bring it in, in our shows. Maybe when I die, they’ll go get that piece and say, see? Lello had already thought about it too. Now I’m on tour with Waiting for Godot which narrates the expectation of the end. The truth is that we played with everything and we did it even with death.

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