Italy’s Box Office King Wraps up Latest Film
TORONTO – Behind James Cameron’s Avatar and Titanic, the five highest grossing films in Italy were all made by one man – Checco Zalone. In Italy, his films enjoy cult status. But while his coarse portrayals of the Italian southerner hit the mark for local audiences, his appeal abroad remains unlocked.
He was born in Bari as Luca Pasquale Medici, but took a stage name from a Barese insult “Che cozzalone!” (“what a boor!”). Zalone cut his teeth as a standup comic in local clubs before being cast in Canale 5’s comedy show “Zelig”, in 2007. Two years later, he wrote and starred in his first film Cado Dalle Nubi (2009).
Interestingly, his debut film was greenlit on the advice of a 15-year-old fan Filippo, the son of Italian Producer Pietro Valsecchi. “It was my son who told me to call him. My 15-year-old son, Filippo, showed me a video on YouTube and said, “Dad, if you make a film with this guy [Zalone], you’ll make barrels full of money”, explained Valsecchi in an interview.
Perhaps for the first time in recorded history, a teenager was right. Valsecchi teamed with Zalone on Cado Dalle Nubi which earned €15m at the box office, a record for a first film. Since then, his film work has eclipsed the box office success of cinema maestros like Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica and Luchino Visconti. In a span of fifteen years, he’s released 5 box office hits – soon to be 6.
His next film Buen Camino wrapped filming on October 20th in Spain, and follows his now iconic character [Checcho] across one of the world’s most popular pilgrimage routes. He plays a wealthy and overindulged heir to a sofa-manufacturing empire who’s forced away from his lap of luxury to search for his missing teenage daughter – on the Camino de Santiago.
The traveling tale or arduous journey is one of Zalone’s trademarks. A hack on a mission, or more specifically, a crass southerner playing the fish out of water. But what gives his comedy extra weight is that in reality, Luca Medici, is no slouch. He holds a Law degree from Bari, is a musician and song writer, and is a talented comedian and record-breaking filmmaker.
His lampooning of the southerner isn’t an attack on the south. It’s an attack on the stereotype and the provincial prism from which Italians tend to perceive one another. But Checco Zalone doesn’t just play the late blooming southerner. It’s who he is. He didn’t make his first film until he was 32.
And that’s an integral part of his charm. That a balding and energetic comic who no one saw coming, has arguably surpassed the comedic heights of Sordi, Benigni, and Proietti. And more, he’s lured an historic number of Italians to theatres in an era when comparatively, theatre going was on the wane.
Images courtesy of Indiana Production and Medusa Film
Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix
