Roberto
Benigni on TuttoDante
Interviewed in Spanish
by Diego Senior of Caracol Radio
Interpretation by Violet Vandever
D: So how have you felt
for the past three years presenting your play, TuttoDante, across
Europe and now in the United States?
Benigni:
Well. Extremely well, dear Diego. I find myself so well in places like
South America and the Spanish world because we Italians are so similar
in our hearts, in our passions, and our temperaments—these
are things we have in common with Latin Americans and those places that
speak Spanish. This last part of the trip is really the best; it is
where I hope to be the most prepared and the most inspired and full of
love and energy. All of this tour in Europe and the U.S. has been so
spectacular, and such a big production, a big show; but coming here,
where I am not among cousins but among brothers really, where I find
myself so well, and where there are so many Italians...I experience
something more sincere, more beautiful, more full of passion.
D: They’re
turning you into an honorary citizen of Buenos Aires. What is your
reaction to that?
Benigni:
[laughter] I feel like I am already a citizen of Buenos Aires. Whenever
I see a beautiful place, a beautiful house in Buenos Aires, I want to
rent it. I want to move in and plant myself there. And so making me an
honorary citizen is really like a confirmation of mutual love, so I
will accept it very happily. Very, very happily.
D: So you have to say a
little bit about Berlusconi, it is inevitable. Tell me, in what section
of hell would you place Berlusconi?
Benigni:
Berlusconi in hell? Ah…poor Berlusconi [laughter]. Well, I
hope he goes to heaven...however, in l'Inferno there are all types of
sins and sinners, so I think Berlusconi could go very well anywhere
there in Dante. Actually I think that we could do a good show together,
Berlusconi and me, because he has really become a real showman, with
all the dancers and stripteases and whatnot. We could do a show
together with strippers. We could do it all over the world. And surely
in l'Inferno we could construct a circolo for him, his own personal
circolo, just for him.
D: [laughter] Just for
him?
Benigni:
Yes, we can make a trip and a circolo just for him.
D: I've noticed that
your play does not have any subtitles, yet you are performing for such
a huge universal audience. Why don't you use them in your play?
Benigni:
It changes continuously, so it is true that we cannot use subtitles
because the show is always changing. So we can't use them, not in
English, not in French, not in Spanish...because I never say the same
thing. And so instead I talk a little bit about things that happen that
same day, about the city in which I find myself. I talk about the
people I meet, about the hotel I'm staying in, about the restaurants,
all of these things.
D: In your adaptations
for various audiences you have left some parts of the show in its
original Italian to remain true to Dante’s vision. Can you
speak a little bit about this?
Benigni:
Precisely. Bravo, Diego, you speak the truth. That which never changes,
I would say, is that which happens at first. And that...the final part
in Dante, written in its original Italian, is so beautiful, it feels
like a musical work, like a concert from God and Beethoven
together...with Frank Sinatra, and who else? Bach, together with Brahms
and the Doors...and the Rolling Stones....and Puccini. There.
D: Why did you choose
to adapt a book from Dante?
Benigni:
Because in Italy everyone knows Dante--it is the only thing everyone
knows. It is like when you say Cervantes or Don Quixote in Spain--who
doesn't know him? It is the same thing. All the grandmothers, sons,
everyone, everyone knows him. He is really like one of our friends. A
relative, part of the family, you know?
D: Dante and Cervantes,
they’re both two of the great universal authors.
Benigni:
Precisely, Dante and Cervantes. I remember hearing that Dostoevsky, the
great Russian author, once said that the day that he would appear
before God, before Il Signore, he would want to appear before him with
a copy of Don Quixote. And he would tell Him..."I come from the people
that gave the world this book."
For the most part Dante and Cervantes are very similar to one another,
Don Quixote and Dante, the liberty and the beauty and the poetry. They
are two great, extraordinary things.
D: You perform as a
clown very often. Please, tell me what is the key to being a good clown?
Benigni:
Oh, ah, no, I don't know if I could respond to this question, it would
be heresy. Because it would be a very exceptional thing if I knew how
and what makes a good clown. Because it's a mystery--how can you know
how one is able to really come alive, I don't know. Yes, it happens,
but when it does it is always a mystery. When I see that people are
laughing or they are responding in some way, it seems to me that [the
character] is alive and it is a miraculous thing. But I wouldn't know
how to find the formula, or what exactly the secret is to this mystery.
And I am happy to not know it.
D: Do you use a script
when you are made up as a clown, some predetermined act?
Benigni:
No, I don't have a script. I want to make a comedy, not divine, but a
comedy, cinema, to make people laugh. That is the thing that pleases me
the most.
D: The Divine Comedy is
such a grand work of art. Has anyone ever approached you, or have you
ever thought about making a movie out of it?
Benigni:
Oh yes, many times. Many, many times. But it is too difficult. Italians
and Americans both have approached me with proposals to make it, to
make the Divine Comedy. But it is a work of poetry, and you would lose
the poetry, it would become a work of prose, a script. A million
dollars would not be enough to do the special effects for even one
canto of the work because of its grandezza. And because of the amount
of time--each canto becomes a two-hour story. It is incredible.
D: Can you speak a
little bit about the universality of Dante?
Benigni:
You said it very well, Diego...Dante is universal, like all the great
creators. And like Cervantes, like I said before. It is universal and
it is forever. Por todos. Por siempre.
D: Thank you so very
much for speaking with me today and for speaking to Columbia, it has
been a great honor to have you. Thank you.
Benigni:
It has been a great honor. It has been a great honor to be in Spain and
Argentina and all the Spanish speaking countries of Latin America, it
has been a great honor for me, thank you.
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