Carlo Verdone: «Vita da Carlo 4 is a tribute to my father, to today’s young people and to the cinema that no longer exists»

«The series will not become a kind of Casa Vianello”, assures Verdone, «everyone knows everything about me, and I wouldn’t know what to say. However, I am happy to have left a small fictionalized biography.” Now the director is finishing shooting his new film School of seduction“which will be very different from all my other work,” he says.

The fourth season of Life as Carlo (on Paramount+ starting November 28) «it is a tribute to my father Mario and to the young actors of the future», states, «there is a generation of smart twenty-year-olds who deserve some considerationotherwise we risk making cookie-cutter films with the same cast. Big name actors and directors no longer work to bring people to the cinema. We need credible and powerful stories.”

Carlo Verdone also pays homage to Alvaro Vitali. The actor, who passed away last June, appears in vintage black and white in the protagonist’s dreams. «Alvaro represents Fellini’s cinema», states the actor and director, who directed the series together with Valerio Vestoso. «Fellini was in love with this little man with the strange face. Having him in the cast was like having a bridge that linked me to that glorious past. I loved him and I’m happy that he did his last job with me.”

At the beginning of the series Carlo leaves Rome for a few months, and intends not to return if it weren’t for certain family disputes. In reality Carlo would never leave the capital? «When I’m angry I happen to think about it: sometimes I can’t stand the traffic, the vulgarity and the fact that I can’t wander the streets on my own. I can only do it at night and very early on Sundays”, explains the interpreter, who on November 17th will be mayor of his city for one day (the first season of the series was prophetic ed.). «When I move to the house in the countryside for a few days, I feel reborn, but leaving Rome is impossible. I have always loved Rome and continue to love it. Today many things in the center are being fixed, less so in the suburbs. Rome is everything to me!

They add to the series’ solid body of cast Francesca Fagnani, Renzo Rosso, Giovanni Veronesi, True Gemma e Sergio Rubini, the co-protagonist and antagonist of this season. «We argue very well on stage», Rubini comments amused, «I met Carlo on the set of To the wolf to the wolf: We had a great time and I learned a lot. On set Carlo opens his home to you, you get to know his world and the value of simplicity. Verdone has always remained down to earth in life. And it’s a great lesson.”