Gigi Proietti: "He is better than Gassman, because he can also sing".
This clear, clear and unequivocal judgment is not of a famous film, theater or television critic, but it was a phrase that my mother repeated often, almost every time she happened to see Gigi Proietti. I begin the memory of this extraordinary artist who left us on the day he would have turned 80, with a judgment which, in its absolute simplicity, however, perfectly describes the artist's depth.
Because if we want to give a generic artistic connotation to Gigi Proietti, we should only say that he was an artist who knew how to do everything.. Very well. He could make you laugh to tears with hilarious sketches, where tones of voice, facial and body mimics created a mix of extraordinary artistic creativity. He could, however, also make you tears of emotion after reciting a sonnet by Belli or Trilussa, or singing a poignant Neapolitan melody.
His book
Since then, it was November 2, 2020, more than six months have passed, but the regret of losing it has certainly not passed. To help us not miss him too much, a book comes to our rescue: "Ndo cojo cojo. Sonnets and jeers beyond any rule". This is the title of the book that Gigi Proietti had started to write and which he was unable to complete due to his sudden and untimely death. His family did it for him who, as recalled by one of the actor's two daughters, Carlotta Proietti, found themselves, after Gigi's disappearance, with a gold mine in their hands, without knowing what to do with it. An infinite material that is the son of the genius of the Roman artist. The book then saw the light exactly on 20 April.
"It is dad who is telling us what to do with it: "'Ndo cojo cojo, connect the dots and create an apparent chaos ... only apparent"; as if to say, in his repertoire where you catch, catch well ...". So it was done, the working criterion was to combine many pieces of an infinite and heterogeneous mosaic whose final result led to about eighty sonnets written between 1997 and 2020, together with about fifteen poems in free verse and some reflections written during the lockdown last spring. Reading these writings, his voice seems to ring in his ears. He recites poems and sonnets for his part, where the smile alternates with a tear of emotion.
In this book there is all Gigi Proietti. The man, the husband and the father, beloved by his family. The artist, complete, brilliant, human and popular. A compendium of an artist who has accompanied three / four generations plus those who will come after us and who will feed on all the artistic material she has left behind. For our part we can not help but thank Sagitta Alter, for almost sixty years Proietti's companion and her daughters Carlotta e Susanna for this great gift they packed.
In memory of theirs and ... of our Gigi Proietti.
"This book is yet another gift from him, it will help all of us not to forget the beauty it has given us". (Carlotta and Susanna Proietti)
'Er crafty', unpublished written during the lockdown that begins like this:
“He says: let's go back to normal! Yes, normality remains what we have known up to now, if it would do mejo a nun tornacce ever "
Article by Stefano Vori
