The same scoundrels in the life of Jesus

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In the room that housed the preview of Boris 4 at the Rome Film Festival there were at least three generations and a thrill of collective enthusiasm. Laughter and applause roared during the screening, and when the big face of Francesco Pannofino (connected at a distance) appeared on the screen at the press conference, the audience exploded into a roar of approval. I doubt there is another current Italian product capable of arousing such sincere and devoted affection, from an audience made up of twenty and fifty year olds, cinephiles and instagrammers

One can therefore imagine how difficult the task of Giacomo Ciarrapico and Luca Vendruscolo was who, moreover without the late Mattia Torre, had to recreate the world they created 15 years ago. Unfortunately, the operation was only partially successful. The basic strategy works: the new season changes everything in order not to change anything. René Ferretti and associates are now shooting a series for a platform, the ambitious one Life of Jesus, of which Stanis is producer and protagonist: the algorithm is the new dott. Dog, the politically correct is the new Rai moralism, history teen is the new comic line. They are the same scoundrels of the past, struggling with a changed world, and often make you laugh. There are also new contagious idioms, ready to enter everyday language, for which Boris it continues to have no equal («lo dimo», «merdu», «famo as in Little girl and the captain“,” These include themselves “).

Conversely, however, the grip on the television moment is much weaker: The eyes of the heart had precise referents in reality, Life of Jesus it is not a credible blueprint for a platform. Granting an appearance to all the old glories forces too much forcing, while the new characters are confined to barely sketched side stories. Some scenes are of a weak comedy, bordering on embarrassing: the Italians who speak macaronic English, the operator with a strange tic that angers an actor. Perhaps this season was overwhelmed by the weight of self-celebration: let’s hope for one Boris 5made in the light of this experience, that it knows how to update itself better and returns to talk more about Italy than about itself.
Boris 4 Giacomo Ciarrapico and Luca Vendruscolo
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