Pinocchio

This is a charming, funny yet dark adaptation of Carlo Collodi's story of Pinocchio. The basic plot will be familiar to anyone who's seen Disney's version, but the story is much richer than the cartoon format allowed for. The actors in this version are superb, particularly Manfredi as Gepetto and Franchi and Ingrassia as the cat and the fox. It's well worth renting, if you can find it -- and it's probably better for adults to watch with older kids, given that some of the villains in the story are portrayed in a pretty scary way that the Disney cartoon glossed over.

This is the 300 minutes version of the best TV-adaption ever made of "Pinocchio", a co-production of several European public TV-networks. Directed by Luigi Comencini, with Nino Manfredi as Gepetto, Andrea Balestri as Pinocchio and Gina Lollobridgida as the fairy. Great actors and a subtle poetry make this adaption a real masterwork of Italian television. The mini series consists of 6 episodes, each about 55 minutes long. See also "Avventure di Pinocchio, Le" (1972), there you have the very much edited one part-movie version, which in Italy (for example via internet) is available on VHS and DVD.

First time I saw this series in the seventies I was fascinated by everything on it. I felt as if I was Pinocchio´s character and I felt the love of his golden heart father Geppetto (brilliant and sentimental performace by Nino Manfredi) and guided, protected and loved by the fairy (Gina Lollobrigida), in to me her most charming performace ever. Andrea Balestri (the human Pinocchio) performance was to me very nice; I remember the touching moments of him crying beside the fairy grave, and the happiness of him and Geppetto when they realized that Pinocchio would be human forever. Fiorenzo Carpi´s score is very nice, and I never forgot it.

I'm looking for the maybe tenth time at television version of "Le avventure di Pinocchio" By Comencini, Rai is broadcasting it , on its satelite channel Raisat Album, with a maybe bit polemical intention... Here in Italy everyone in showbusinnes says "the Benigni's version is just made for americans..." well, anyway, I don't think americans (the ones who know the Comencini's version) can't make the incredible difference of interpretation between the two movies. The first one in a perfect neorealistic style, caring about every carachter, even the most little and caring much more about the key-words inside the Collodi's story. We mustn't forget the level of actors inside it! Not only Ciccio Ingrassia and Franco Franchi, not only Nino Manfredi, but also Vittorio de Sica as the judge! We mustn't forget the care of locations! Perfectly giving to the watcher the idea of an Italy post- 1861 unification, with all her hunger, he misery, her dignity. Everyone of us, looking to every version of a national tale shouldn't never forget the moment someone told it to him or her... The rest is silence...

This Comencini version of the adventures of Pinocchio is the most fateful to the original novel and also perhaps the best, including some of the biggest names in Italian comedy of the seventies, like Manfredi, Lollobrigida and Vittorio de Sica. The score of the film (by Nino Rita) is FANTASTIC: the themes are airy, elegant and memorable. The slow carillon in "Fata turchina", the coupled piano-harpsicord motif of "Birichinata" or the magic, slightly psychedelic mood of "Trasformazione di Pinocchio e Lucignolo", the askance tango "Il Gatto e la Volpe": just a few of the excellent episodes giving the LP its old-fashioned countryside charm. Fun for all family, and undeservedly little known of outside of Europe. A children classic with a subversive undertone that adults can appreciate.