I’m watching him on Conan O’Brien, and he is quite possibly the oddest man I’ve ever seen.
“I lika the word verclempt, and pantaloon!”
He’s on cocaine.
ok, he and Conan have just switched pants on camera.
I hava wanted to maka the pinnochio since i am in my mother’s womb! we switch pants now!
Just watched it myself. Some of the funniest shit I’ve seen in ages. Roberto Begnini rocks!
Dementia.
He’s a silly italian person?
Conan is tall.
Thanks for the heads-up on the Begnini appearance-- I wouldn’t have tuned in without foreknowledge, and that was funny as hell.
I love Roberto Begnini. Manic is good.
I thought for a while that the clip they showed was a joke, with the dubbing done in-house by Conan’s production staff. Suffering christ, that was terrible. I hope that they are releasing a subtitled version simultaneously – I’d hate to have to wait for it on video. Pinocchio is one of my favourite children’s books. (In its original dark glory.) Disney’s mechanized robot army be damned-- I’m not afraid to say that their version of Pinocchio ruined yet another classic for generations. Murderers.
I would hope that on the set or during serious business, Benigni doesn’t act quite like that - and he is just playing to the crowd. Does he act this nuts in ‘real life’?
I too was very dissapointed by the dub job in the clip.
The first time I saw the preview for Pinochio, I noticed the cricket was dubbed poorly, and I felt incredibly sad. I would love to see this film if it were subtittled, but the problem with it being rated G (a truly unique thing nowadays) is that your audience isn’t going to be old enough to read, so that’s a pretty worthless thing to do. Hopefully the DVD will have the ability to watch in Italian, because it looks great visually.
As for the man himself, what’s wrong with being incredibly happy with life? In most everything he does, he’s got the same kind of boyish joy and fullness, I have to believe he’s this way the majority of the time behind the camera as well. Perhaps he is manic, but I don’t know, some people are able to see only the good in life and truly enjoy it. It’s a comfort to see nowadays.
Rated G? Ah well, I guess Pinocchio isn’t going to cut the fox’s paw off in this version, either. Bummer. I hope they leave the trauma of the Blue Fairy’s death and the murder of the cricket in, though. You must be allowed to kill bugs in a General admission film, right…? Especially sanctimonious anthropomorphic bugs. I hate those little bastids.
Good point about subtitles being an issue for kids. I must be demented-- it didn’t occur to me that it would hold appeal for children. Why the hell didn’t they at least make an effort with the dub, though? Why a sappy american accent for Pinocchio? (Why not change the title to L’il Piney, then?)
Personally, I think Roberto Begnini is genuinely like that in “normal” situations, although I’m sure it gets cranked up for the cameras. I’m sure he hams it up in the sack. How could he not?
He may be the funniest man alive. Anybody who can make a movie with Il Mostro’s premise pants-wettingly funny is a force to be reckoned with. He ought to be canonised, or lionised, or something.
Miramax is reportedly making subtitled prints available to theatres that ask for them (I wouldn’t count on the local stadium-seating multiplex to get one, but one of the indepedent inner-city arthouse theatres like The Charles in Baltimore might) so I’m sure the Italian track will be available on DVD.
After seeing the previews for Pinocchio, two words come to mind: nightmare fuel.
Conan replays tonight @ 7E on Comedy Central.
It’s Benigni! At least one person got it right.
But “Big Ninny” is so much more apropos than “Small & Harmless.”
The man is a comic genius if only for The Monster and Down By Law. We can all just agree to forget about Son of the Pink Panther, right?
“It is a sad and beautiful world.”
The English that he spoke in that movie was actually all the English that he knew at the time.
I love Roberto, always have, but I also have a big problem with dubbing. I understand why they did it, but I can’t watch him if it’s not his voice.
Thank you, Jim Jarmusch. IMHO the funniest scene of Benigni’s is in Night on Earth - he gives a priest a heart attack when he confesses of sleeping with his brother’s wife.
I saw Conan tonight too.
God, please let me wake up tomorrow as Roberto Benigni. I would give anything to be that happy and enthusiastic about everything. Assuming, of course, that it’s not just an act.