Abstract
This chapter examines the complex relationships between the famous Italian actor Antonio De Curtis, known as Totò, and music. In addition to the soundtracks composed by the most significant representatives of Italian film music that accompany the many films he starred in, these relationships include situations in which the actor plays a real musician (an orchestra and band conductor, or an instrumentalist) and even a composer. But Totò is also a dancing figure who acts with movements reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin’s, and a hilarious comedian who enjoys quoting operas, joking about the meaning of certain verses in their librettos, and mispronouncing the names of famous composers and conductors. He was also an author of songs that he himself performed in his films, making them a primary element of the cinematic narrative. In his comedies, music, therefore, is a characterising element of primary importance. Moreover, Totò was not simply a comedian and, from this point of view, his meeting with Pier Paolo Pasolini represented a real turning point in his life. In the films Totò starred in, Pasolini highlighted his profound humanity once again reflected in Morricone’s music accompanying his movements. From these considerations, it is fair to say that Totò’s musicality stemmed from the depths of his human being and was not a simple acquisition from study and repeated practice. For this reason, music was able to condition his acting, his language, the movements of his body and the very structure of the films he acted in.
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Notes
- 1.
Even though Totò’s filmography includes such composers as Nino Rota, Roman Vlad, Felice Montagnini, Mario Nascimbene, Ennio Morricone, and Gino Marinuzzi Jr., with regard to Totò’s films based on Eduardo Scarpetta’s plays, Trudu also correctly points out ‘that it is not the music in itself, however, which interests Mattoli and his scriptwriters, as much as its application—so to speak—to the character of Felice Sciosciammocca played by Totò, as confirmed by “musical” elements in Scarpetta’s play which disappear in the film (Trudu 2005, p. 326).
- 2.
This text has been referred to, with a few integrations and changes, in Totò e la musica (Various Authors 1998, pp. 105–113).
- 3.
In this regard, Marcello Marchesi said: ‘It was not difficult to write a script for Totò […]: we provided him with contemporary Italian farce materials, in other words, we suggested films entitled Totò cerca casa, Totò al giro d’Italia, Totò lascia o raddoppia; we made comedy films permeated with current affairs, because people were eager to laugh in the world they were currently living in, after they had suffered so much in the world they had lived in just a few years earlier. These scripts were not difficult to produce, and working with Totò was easy enough, because Totò was one who gave plenty of input: you needed to rein him in, rather than encourage him […]; we ended up copying Totò, we imagined what he would say’ (Marcello Marchesi in Faldini and Fofi 1981, p. 180).
- 4.
There is a similar scene also in Totò e Marcellino (1958, dir. Antonio Musu), where the actor—a former first trumpet at the Conservatory—becomes a travelling musician surviving on handouts.
- 5.
In this respect we are in total disagreement with Paolo Isotta who, regarding Uccellacci e uccellini, wrote that it was the worst film Totò ever acted in. On the other hand, we agree that Totò here ‘acts very differently from his usual style’, despite the outstanding results achieved and not in order to be ‘pure nothing’. I will omit mentioning here several macroscopic and unforgivable mistakes regarding the identification of moments in the soundtrack contained in the text in question. The distance between the positions expressed in this chapter and those of the author of said book is so great that no further reference will be made to them here. Suffice it to mention that, with regard to La terra vista dalla luna, Isotta wrote that ‘[he finds] Pasolini with Totò increasingly annoying’ (Isotta 2021, pp. 269–273).
- 6.
Totò regretted not having a chance to act in any film by Fellini. ‘With this mask of mine I have performed in Commedia dell’Arte farce, in variety show, in café chantant, in vaudeville, in operetta, in dialect prose and in cinema: I am attached to it as to the thing most dear to me’ (Totò in Faldini and Fofi 2017, p. 172).
- 7.
The introduction of this small and yet organism into a film inevitably leads to significant issues of consistency in the poetics of any director, already struggling to dominate the polysemic organism of the film. The song is thus redeemed, when the juxtaposition between the two languages, cinema and music, entails a connotative potential which goes beyond the immediate referential power of the musical product. On this topic, see Jeff Smith (1998).
- 8.
The former is from Totò e i tre ladri (1954, dir. Lionello De Felice) and the second from Totò a Parigi (1958, dir. Camillo Mastrocinque), where the actor improvises in a nightclub, displaying all the skills he had accrued in vaudeville.
- 9.
‘Classical, chamber, symphonic music is appreciated by few connoisseurs and discerning listeners. The same applies to plays by Ibsen; on the contrary, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy’s comedies are loved by the masses, while the most demanding audiences turn up their noses, and so on. On the other hand, also with regard to the genres exemplified here: everybody likes Shakespeare’s theatre, Charlie Chaplin’s comic films, or Verdi’s music … I hope not to sound irreverent, for what I’m saying. Verdi was the greatest composer, apart from the rest, of course. His Messa da Requiem and Otello are masterpieces, agreed, but just for a minority. Nevertheless, I’m sure that everybody—at least once a day—whistles or sings La donna è mobile…, or: Alfredo, Alfredo di questo cuore…, or: Va’ pensiero sull’ali dorate…’ These quotes from interviews with Totò are taken from the website: Totò parla di canzonette, p. 1 http://www.tototruffa2002.it. Accessed 12 December 2021.
- 10.
‘Totò never sung in public or recorded any of his songs. He only did it during his vaudeville period, when he sang the pieces he composed for his performances. In his films he never sang, except briefly in Risate di gioia (Mario Monicelli, 1960) with Anna Magnani, or in Totò contro Maciste (Fernando Cerchio, 1962) where he hums Le mille bolle blu. There was never any follow-up to that.’ Mollica (1982, pp. 23–24).
- 11.
To complete the picture of Totò’s relationship with songs, it is worth mentioning his appearance at the Festival di Sanremo in 1954, the biggest Italian song festival held every year in Liguria, with the song ‘Con te’, which reached the final and came fourth, as well as his presence as panel member of the commission called on to shortlist the songs for said Festival in 1960. It was by no means a positive experience, and Totò regretted it. (see: Mollica 1982, pp. 105–109). In 1966, Totò was a guest in a show of Mina’s (a female singer he greatly admired), namely Studio uno, a popular TV programme of that period. When Mario Riva tried to convince him to sing during the show Il Musichiere, he retorted: ‘I can’t sing; I’m totally off-key’, then adding—after a perfect comical pause—‘On the other hand, if Vittorio Gassmann has sung, I might as well give it a try…’.
- 12.
Totò himself gives his version in a TV programme where he confirmed how his famous songs were composed. See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unfjl_7_5-A. Accessed 12 June 2022.
- 13.
This film includes a long set of songs which constantly intersperse the narrative.
- 14.
It also features in Totò lascia o raddoppia? (1956, dir. Camillo Mastrocinque) and in Totò a colori, in the latter case hummed by a gardener.
- 15.
This was not the first time a famous singer was featured in one of his films. In I ladri (1959, dir. Lucio Fulci) there is an appearance by Fred Buscaglione.
- 16.
‘It was not easy to convince Anna Magnani to act with Totò—says Monicelli. She was a diva by then; she had won an Oscar, acted alongside Marlon Brando and Burt Lancaster. A film with Totò seemed like a step back. On the contrary, the couple worked well together, and Totò duly played his role as her sidekick: as casting manager she was the best known between the two … There are hierarchies even among the desperate. Anna Magnani was a very smart woman; unfortunately, she was obsessed by beauty and could think of nothing else. This impossible wish was bound to jeopardise her interpretation, which was actually meant to focus on the passing of time. She was so convinced of the importance of following her acting instincts, as an assertive woman born and bred in Rome, that she was unable to explore the folds of a profoundly embittered character’ (Mario Monicelli in Mondadori 2005, p. 161).
- 17.
The unusual surname ‘Scannagatti’ is possibly a parodic reference to the famous musicologist Guido M. Gatti [‘cats’], then managing director of the production company LUX Film, who did not think much of Totò’s films.
- 18.
- 19.
To this end, see the philosophy of Wittgenstein’s last period and his language games.
- 20.
The pink jersey (maglia rosa) is awarded to the cyclist who wins a segment of the Giro d’Italia competition.
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Calabretto, R. (2023). The Paladin of Italian Comedy: Totò and Music. In: Audissino, E., Wennekes, E. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Music in Comedy Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33422-1_17
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