Marcello

The best memory that binds me to Marcello dates back to many years ago, when I was the first to notice his extraordinary skills as an actor. In fact, even as a child, in some moments Marcello entered as if in a trance and began to act, inventing the strangest and most incredible stories. He was born an actor. When there were street parties at Fontana Liri, I was the one who organized small comedies. I had a black mustache, a straw hat and I remember it was in the audience my nephew who followed me with his eyes wide open and then in the house asked me to try them again and all together with him those scenes. In short, it was me, so to speak, his first discoverer.

And I encouraged him to devote himself to the show as soon as Marcello, after having taken his diploma as an expert in Rome, found himself choosing the path of his life. In days, and never before, we will leave together for a trip to Tokyo, where an exhibition of mine has been set up. The highest Japanese authorities, including the empress, have organized a series of extraordinary events to celebrate the two most famous Mastroianni in the world. And I assure you that I am looking forward to spending a week next to my nephew Marcello, who is always very busy due to his work “. … ..

“For many years I have been cherishing the idea of seeing the artists of the Mastroianni family reunite to make a film all together. It is a dream that will soon become reality, I’m sure. Meanwhile, I already have contacted Marcello and his brother Ruggero. I also spoke to my brother Corrado, who was Marcello’s secretary for a few years and is also a good painter. Everyone was enthusiastic. I’m already thinking about the story, but I can’t anticipate anything yet. I only hope that the project goes through: this, among my secret dreams, is the one I care about the most “.

And so Marcello describes his uncle Umberto in an interview with Floriano De Santi for Il Messaggero:

“Marcello Mastroianni, how did your uncle Umberto get the passion for sculpture?”

I don’t know exactly this, even if I often went to see him in his study as a kid. Thinking about the creativity of uncle Domenico and our parents, it is probably a hereditary vocation, although we can say that Umberto and sculpture are one ”.

“His visits at Christmas meant mainly this to me: that the

‘magical uncle’ was coming and made everyone happy. He had an almost romantic hairstyle, just like he wore in the last century. He was always very elegant, fascinating for his “disguises”, which he hasn’t given up even today; he was original and never vulgar in his choices: certain coats, certain sports jackets, English shoes, silk shirts struck you for their uniqueness. In addition, I was always waiting for those five silver lire that he regularly put me in on important holidays but no”.

“I didn’t have the cultural background to understand his work: I just knew it was important. I could not follow his artistic development and his successes, if not from afar, because he often talked about it in the family. Later I learned to know him better: I was with him in 1960s in New York. I was very proud of the time he devoted to me and I said to myself: I buy to be alongside such an interesting and aristocratic uncle. Indeed, I want to say more. After the Praemium Imperiale, I really want to go to Japan with him, because I arrive there not as a “cinematographer”, but as the nephew of a great artist ”.

Regarding the visit to the anthological exhibition at the Rotonda della Besana in Milan, Marcello says:

“I looked at the Milanese retrospective with a feeling of great admiration; at one point I even felt annihilated. I did not know that my uncle had the ability to treat any material - from paper to lead, from copper to bronze, from marble to wood, from gold to silver -, with astounding craftsmanship. It’s incredible: whatever you touch becomes a work of art; and I say this in a very naive way, as an inexperienced visitor who is surprised to see such an extensive and varied range of expressive possibilities. And then the recent sculptures of him come back to mind they seem to me like “machines” of war; however, you immediately understand that they are not machines to make war, but to highlight the monstrous effects that war causes. And I also experienced this impression in Florence, in the evocatively ordered exhibition at the Fortress del Belvedere “.

“When it happens, I spend wonderful hours, I like to listen to his speeches also because as a great artist he still has all the anger of a boy, the vitality and desire to do as a teenager”.