“Sta mano po esse fero o po esse feather: oggi è ‘na feather” (Bianco, rosso e Verdone, 1981). “A me fascina? I fascina? Aò, I’m not such a communist, you know! I’m such a communist!” (A Nice Lot, 1980). “I put a right hand to my mouth, it fell to the ground like Jesus Christ. I broke the nasal septum, I shattered the mucous membranes and I said ‘Arzete, a cuckold arzete!’.” How so st’olive? (Talcum powder, 1982).
At least two generations can recite the lines of Mario Brega and his monologues and today, on his 100th birthday, a plaque commemorates him in the Marconi district of Rome, where he lived for thirty years.
Brought to the big screen by Sergio Leone And Charles Verdone“engraved in the memory of the Roman people“. So we read on the commemorative brush discovered in Via Oderisi da Gubbio 18, discovered today on the notes of L’ultima luna by Lucio Della, Soundtrack by Borotalco. “Uncle was so – his niece Francesca remembered it – sullen face and kind eyes, generous. He was the prince of the people”.
Brega died in 1994 and was honored by Verdone and the Mayor of Rome Robert Gualtieri on the occasion of his 100th birthday. “This plate is both feathery and fierce‘ shouts a man, quoting a famous line from ‘White, Red and Verdone’.
Verdone, smiling and sometimes moved, remembers his first meeting with Brega with a smile: “I met him at Sergio Leone’s house where I refined the cast of ‘A Lot of Nice’. The role of the hippie’s father was absent as this tall man with glasses, a large gold cross around his neck and his shirt open entered the living room. ‘To Sergio – says Verdone, imitating Brega’s voice – I come from the general markets, look what I brought you: aubergines, artichokes, oranges, apples …'”.
Astonished, the young director asks the older one: “Sergio, who is that? And he says ‘a friend of mine who has worked with me in general markets and films…’. He’s perfect for being a father to Ruggero, the hippie, a tremendous contrast”. It so happened that the meeting led to memorable scenes, beginning with the famous exchange with his son and his girlfriend: “I’m not a communist like this …”.
Brega, Verdone points out, was “a great Roman character actor who was loved throughout Italy. He was it a fearless man, ready for anything. That’s how he was in life, he brought himself to the set, a brave, a brave, a madman.” Brega and his sister Lella, the last of a certain cinema, according to the director: “He and Elena Fabrizi are the last characters actors, that he had in Rome and I’m proud to have had them with me, if those films are remembered by everyone, it’s because they gave them true soul and sincerity. Cinema makes man immortal and he will always be immortal.”
The writer floated the idea of a plaque for Brega Dario on timea neighbor at number 18 in which the mini-mayor of parish XI was involved Gianluca Lanzitoday at the ceremony wearing a t-shirt with the actor’s face on it.
“Brega – said the mayor Gualtieri – was able to capture the identity of Rome in a seemingly exaggerated way, but always with a touch of sweetness. All Romans immediately grasped something that represented us, they had grasped something about us. A symbol of Rome that no longer exists but is still within us. Will there be other similar initiatives? We want a Rome that is aware of its roots and its history – he replied: “It is not an anonymous city: we want to give an identity to the districts that remember their history and in this case the personalities who live there lived”.