Le avventure di Pinocchio

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...

When I was a child in the 70's I watched this beautiful version of Pinocchio on the German television for the first time. The series was broadcast on a few Sunday mornings in the '70's. I never saw such a realistic pinocchio-boy. It was fascinating to see how the wooden boy moved and how he walks and talks. In my childhood this boy of wood looks very realistic. I never forgot some fragments like the mysterious fairy and the boat by the water and the big whale. It was really spooky sometimes to watch but I didn't wanna stop watching! I loved it! But anyway I will warn children and other readers for watching Le avventure di Pinnochio alone. It could be a bit scary. One day, it was real tragic for me, the series suddenly stopped, it disappeared. Unfortunately I never saw it again on the television. I searched many times to this Pinnochio movie but didn't know any information about the subtitle or creator. Without the internet, I guess, I never discovered it. Finally this week I found at last the information I was searching so many years for. I was very enjoyed about it!! Now I can order this masterpiece of Luigi Comencini on DVD and watch it in my own Dutch language. I will always treasure this series from my childhood and I can't wait to see it again after more then 20 years.

I'm a little afraid to watch Benigni's Pinocchio, because I think that Luigi Comencini has already reached the top in the human versions of this story. Great acting (especially the great Nino Manfredi, Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia and the superb little boy Andrea Balestri), great photography (just look at the wonderful still image of the final scene, with Pinocchio and Geppetto on the beach), and great costumes by Piero Gherardi (Oscar for Fellini's La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2). I think this movie is better to watch for grown-up people, who can fully understand the philosophical and moral implications of this representation. Definitely, a story that will touch you, and make you somehow richer inside. I expect wonderful things from Benigni, or maybe I just hope it, because this time I don't think he can do the best.

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.

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.