LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Roberto Benigni: Giuseppe Bertolucci
built 277 days ago
Benigni was born in Misericordia, a frazione of Castiglion Fiorentino, province of Arezzo (Tuscany) and raised in Manciano. His first experiences as theatre actor began in 1972, in Prato. In the autumn of the same year he moved to Rome where he took part in some experimental theatre spectacles, some of which he ... directed. In 1975 Benigni met his first theatrical success with Cioni Mario di Gaspare fu Giulia, written by Giuseppe Bertolucci. Benigni became famous in Italy in the 1970s for a shocking TV series called Televacca, by Renzo Arbore, in which he interpreted the satirical piece "anthem of the melting body" (L'inno del corpo sciolto), a hymn to defecation. A great scandal for the time, the series was suspended due to censorship.
Source:
Benigni was born and raised in poverty in a small Tuscan village. His gift for improvisation was nurtured early on (age 10 or 11) with his immersion into the Italian tradition of improvised song and poetry through a sort of troubadour act that traveled rural Tuscany. After another formative experience during the several months he spent as a circus clown, Benigni's vocation was cemented when at about age 16 he leaped up on a platform in the town square of Prado (in Tuscany, near Florence) and, pretending to be a political candidate, gave a "speech" that was greeted with hearty laughter from the crowd that filled the square. In the audience was the director of an avant-garde theater company, who persuaded Benigni to move to Rome and join his company. In Rome, Benigni worked in the theater, television, and film throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, achieving initial success through monologues, particularly one called "Cioni Mario" about a sex-obsessed man from his hometown who never has sex, but thinks and talks of nothing else. This was adapted by Giuseppe Bertolucci in 1976 as Berlinguer ti volgio bene, Benigni's film debut; later Bertolucci would adapt another smash stage show, Tuttobenigni.
Source:
Benigni became famous in Italy in the 1970s for a shocking TV series called Televacca, by Renzo Arbore, in which he interpreted "The anthem of the melting body" (L'inno del corpo sciolto), a hymn to defecation. A great scandal for the time, the series was suspended due to censorship. His first film was 1977's Berlinguer ti voglio bene... by Giuseppe Bertolucci.
Source:
Synopsis: Four different comedy vignettes highlight the particular, idiosyncratic viewpoint of Roberto Benigni, a television comedian who originally wrote these four segments with Giuseppe Bertolucci for home TV. In the first sketch, the year is 5 A.D. and Benigni has to baby-sit for his old girlfriend MaryRead More
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Giuseppe Bertolucci