The sign to the left of the pulpit just says “Francesco, thank you”. Below flowers and a Fiorentina scarf. Above, leaning against the 23 of the small colonnade, the straw hat worn by Francesco Nuti in Heaven’s Guilt.
On Thursday, June 15, in the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte in Florence, the funeral of Francesco Nuti, who died in Rome on Monday, was held, anything but “strictly private”. Everyone was there, relatives, friends, people.
Many people. Full basilica.
friends, relatives, family
One of the first to arrive is Carlo Conti, wearing a white polo shirt and sunglasses on his forehead. Side by side with Marco Masini and Leonardo Pieraccioni. Giorgio Panariello, out of breath at the last minute, also joins to complete the quartet that turned the Prato director’s last “public” birthday into a great show at the Mandela Forum.
It was the year 2014.
All four occupy the upper right corner of the basilica, that of the authorities, with the mayor of Prato, Matteo Biffoni, in the tricolor in the front row, who has declared a day of mourning for the city.
From the opposite side the family, complete: his brother Giovanni, his daughter Ginevra, his ex-partner Annamaria Malipiero, his niece Margherita. As the ceremony begins, Dario Nardella also appears, also wearing the sash.
The companion of many films and gags Antonio Petrocelli He sits on the left and seems to have stayed in 1982: he has the same inclination of the neck, the same posture and movement of the arms as when he sat next to Nuti on the bench in the Cascine, made famous by the sausage scene Politics: communist mortadella, socialist salami, etc.
Seraphic, impassive, bright but steady eyes. In his fingers he holds a white-lined piece of paper on which he has written the last thoughts he wants to say from the pulpit. But then he won’t say it. He will confine himself to a few passages of the Gospel, which, however, are immediately interrupted by tears.
Not far away Sandro Veronesi, Nuti’s number one student director, still has no muscles. It’s a violin string, strained and heartbroken. His way of suffering is the opposite of Petrocellis: every fiber of his body is in excitement and revolution, his gaze is electric, he finds no peace. When he finds it, he finds a seat next to his award-winning brother Witch Sandro, who had stayed in the background among the people, never moving a cheekbone, always looking down. AND Gianfranco Monti, another of the stable of comedians who shared miles of roads and plenty of affection with Cecco da Narnali Nuti to get up after the sermon was over and take the pulpit next to Father Bernardo. He reads a letter from Nuti’s friend and bedside caretaker, Daniele.
the sermon
Abbot Bernardo’s homily is so personal, affectionate and no frills that it doesn’t even seem like a homily: it evokes the ringing of the bell of San Miniato, “as loud as that of our Prato Cathedral,” he says. Even the abbot, like Nuti, is from Prato. And from one belfry to the other he recalls with his imagination the “impossible effort to move the church or win pools or go to Peru”, also quote here, Madonna, what is silence tonight, as “the three paradoxical solutions that Francis has.” becomes a symbol of never being satisfied.
Bernardo talks about how he, a Cicognini high school student “when I still didn’t believe in God,” dropped out of school and found himself on the set of “Madonna,” which is a silence tonight. “They shot the scene of the song You Have a Pear-Shaped Doll.
The feeling
Barely noticeable smile to ease the sadness. Then it’s like an angel descending and hugging everyone: that’s it Marco Masini who sits down and sings “It will be for you,” the song that Nuti was brought to Sanremo in 1988.
Chills.
In the end he approaches Francesco’s daughter Ginevra, hugs and kisses her without stopping singing.
Then a kiss on the coffin. There are no less brilliant eyes.
Article is updated…
June 15, 2023
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