by Candida Morvillo
Mixer Creator and Lux Vide President: “We had different stories and suffered from jealousy. But our love is stronger”
There are two bells. One for Giovanni Minoli. One for Matilde Bernabei. I would be in this square in Rome by Grande Bellezza for one of the interviews in the series about great love and I don’t know who to call. I will discover that there are also two apartments. “There is a connecting door,” she informs me. “It’s not there: it’s closed, locked,” he protests. Her: “Come on, I’ll show you”. He: «Oh no! It is important that he also sees it from my side ». Whether the door is there or not, I will only know at the end. The Minoli have been married for 48 years, they have one daughter and three grandchildren. He’s the man who invented many of our televisions, Mixer, We Are The Story, The Night by Renzo Arbore, Money, Money by Arrigo Levi, A Place in the Sun, Rai Storia, Rai Educational… You, Knight of Labor , is the woman who founded Ettore Lux Vide with her father and brought the Italian series to the world through the production of the Bible Project, I Medici, Don Matteo, Doc, Diavoli…
Has it always been two houses or will they be at some point?
Giovanni: «Before it was one. When our daughter Giulia got married, I moved to Via di Monserrato alone for a while, then we shared this apartment and moved back. We have found that staying in two neighboring houses is the safe way to maintain a relationship ».
why was he gone
“I had to live without telling lies. I mentioned them by accident, and deep down they cost me dearly. Later, when I knew the freedom of truth, I never left it. I love Matilde but I don’t know what all the other jewels of the couple are ».
Matilde: «Last Sunday we went to a wedding: I’m still touched when I see two lovers getting married. Because when you say “I will love you in good times and bad, in joy and in pain”, it is very strong, but you are young and you do not know what it will mean ».
John: «But you also say “forever”: It’s what changes the connotations of everything. I can’t take “forever” for granted. I think you have to choose it every day. Life offers new experiences, but above all we change and I am appalled by the hypocrisy: I want to be honest and face the consequences.”
And now your marriage is one without hypocrisy, without lies?
“I know I went with Matilde because I was kidnapped by her soul and I needed her soul to live. I never managed to get it off me even if I tried. It was the meaning and the lifeblood of my life. It doesn’t seem like very little to me. Then what’s in between, God knows I’m passionate, everything I’ve invented I’ve done under emotion, worked with people with whom there was appreciation and friendship, but little by little, friendship and love can become one, one Engine of life all its variants, confusions, complications and in this dynamic I accidentally fell in love with other women “.
Did Matilde fall in love with someone else too?
Giovanni: «He asked you if it happened to you not only to be loved, but to fall in love. Answer because you keep turning it around since you’ve been so courted».
Matilde: «I would start from scratch».
Giovanni: «Excellent: we were married for four days, you went to a conference, you went home with a Frenchman. I say but! He says to me: are you sorry? And I: but no ».
Matilde: “But I didn’t do anything with the Frenchman”
Giovanni: «What does that have to do with it?».
Sorry, who’s the Frenchman?
Matilde: «But nobody. I’ll explain it from the start: I meet Giovanni who already knew from his brother that he was the most intelligent, creative and extraordinary of their large family and that he would never marry and would never have children. I saw it and it was very cool too, especially – shall we use a deprecated expression? – I saw Prince Charming. I thought: This can only be an adventure, patience. I then checked his intelligence, Giovanni understands reality and therefore foresees the future, we never tire of talking ».
Giovanni: «We never got tired of talking, even when things were going well
very bad”.
Matilde: “Anyway, he was 29 and I was 20, it was such a big difference.”
Giovanni: «He asked you if you were in love with others, you didn’t answer».
He wants to start over. Matilde, did you believe in marriage?
“I do. I was 14 in 1968 and that brings us both together because we are left Christian aspirants. We made our first outing to Mass at Don Franzoni, in a garage on the Ostiense, he was a divinis suspended abbot. We both had the idea that we wanted to change the world a little.From marriage, our home has become a center of thought, music, words and planning for the future.I have worked in an NGO, went to university and have cooked for everyone».
If he didn’t want to get married, how did you end up walking down the aisle in a few months?
Matilde: «My father says: I know that you see Giovanni Minoli, who is much older than you, so you don’t talk about Napoleon; either you marry him or you don’t see him anymore. I thought: We’ll just pretend we don’t see each other.”
Giovanni: «Instead I said to her: let’s get married. Knowing his father, I knew that “meeting secretly” would be impossible ». He looks at his wife: «I had already felt your importance in my life, but I would never have married you. Maybe I would marry you now, yes, now. A statement like that, throw it away.”
Matilde: «You are the one of the unexpected departures. That day it was a great joy ».
John. “I wasn’t happy getting married, but I was happy he was with you.”
Matilde: “Precisely because of his starting point, his” I will never marry “, I said to him one day on the beach of Punta Ala: You loved me more than I loved you.”
Giovanni: “It’s an important thing because it’s the truth. I hadn’t been loved by my mother, who loved her husband, not so much by her children. I didn’t believe in family ».
Matilde: «You lived the impossibility of giving yourself to love, but you made it. So I told you, even though I love you very much. However, I fell in love with others. I can’t believe I’ve had a lot of suitors.”
John: “Many suitors is vague. Tell everything “.
Matilde: “Among these suitors, someone was particularly exceptional, but I never stopped loving Giovanni and that’s why I kept choosing him”.
Giovanni mumbles: Is he jealous?
«I came to defend Matilde from her father because she fled to the fjords with her boyfriend for vacation. I defended it because I understood it. I understood it because I also wanted to be understood. And I didn’t want a freedom she couldn’t have. I have always recognized freedom for her, while she does not have it for me ».
Were you ever afraid that Matilde would walk away?
«Yes, and I have suffered. I also had strong reactions. I faced a rival ».
And you Matilde, were you afraid?
“I remember one night he didn’t come back and I thought: He’s not coming back. I was desperate “.
When someone else came, did you tell each other about it?
Giovanni: «Not so much. We felt it. Then we rediscovered each other again and again. Our daughter Giulia played a fundamental role: in moments of real distance she was a terrible love seamstress ».
Matilde: “Since he came back and we shared the apartments, we laugh a lot together, more than before”.
Giovanni: «Precisely because it is a daily choice».
Finally, the connecting door does not open. From Minoli’s side, it lands in a closet. But Matilde has the key to Giovanni’s house: “I used it when he had a heart attack. To tell the connection that is made, from an ounce of his voice that evening, I knew something was wrong. You know? In the evening we almost always have dinner together ». Giovanni: «But if you always go out and I never». Matilde protests, he insists. I leave and they are still fighting. I hear him say, “But did you hear me say I would marry you again now?”
July 27, 2022 (Modification July 27, 2022 | 07:25)
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