Pinocchio returns to the cinema and returns again with Benigni.
The great Italian Oscar winner had played Pinocchio in 2002, in a film for which he had also written the screenplay, following an old idea of Fellini. Unfortunately, then critics and the public did not reward the operation. But Benigni does not stop. And this time he plays Geppetto in Matteo Garrone's film.
Filming began on March 18, 2019. The film is shot entirely in Italy between Tuscany, Lazio and Puglia.
The cast is as follows:
Pinocchio: Federico Ielapi
Geppetto: Roberto Benigni
Fire Eater: Gigi Proietti
The cat and the fox: Massimo Ceccherini and Rocco Papaleo
The talking cricket: Davide Marotta
The snail: Maria Pia Timo
The young fairy: Alida Baldari Calabria
The fairy when she grew up: it had to be Matilda De Angelis, no one knows who she will be
The Parrot: Marcello Fonte
Here are 10 things to know about Pinocchio:
- The author, Carlo Collodi, was actually called Carlo Lorenzini and chose 'Collodi' in honor of his mother's country of origin
- Despite what we read on the internet, there is no evidence of Collodi's affiliation with Freemasonry, so the esoteric interpretations of the story appear unfounded.
- With the translation into 240 languages Pinocchio is the most translated work in the history of Italian literature
- Collodi's intentions were not the happy ending but the death of Pinocchio by hanging and it was only the context for childhood that changed the ending
- The story is set in Tuscany but not at the time of Collodi, but during the Grand Duchy
- Cardinal Giacomo Biffi wrote two books to support Pinocchio's thesis as Christian history
- Tolstoy wrote an alternative version of it in Russian in 1936 entitled 'The Little Golden Key', which also had a film adaptation
- Pinocchio was the subject of numerous fan fictions with the so-called 'Pinocchiate', which even led the puppet to found a republic
- The first of the numerous cinematographic transpositions, which will culminate with that of Disney in 1940, dates back to 1911
- An asteroid has been dedicated to Pinocchio.
