The indestructible Furio Scarpelli

I haven't seen yet that animated movies for kids. But I'm sure I will, as soon as we get it released in Canada, would it be just as a way to pay my tribute to Mr. Furio Scarpelli, to whom as a spectator I feel deeply indebted.

To him, that his, and his long-time colleague Agenore Incrocci, better known as Age from « Age - Scarpelli ».

The « divorce » of Age & Scarpelli by the mid-to-late-eighties really was the last nail in the coffin for the comic genre they had invented, known as "commedia all'italiana". Together, they wrote over a hundred screenplays, almost always comedies, starting with the early Totò farces of the 40s.

Big Deal on Madonna Street (I Soliti ignoti, 1958) was the comedy that brought them what they call their "second breath" and inaugurated a two-decade explosion of popular comedies unseen anywhere else in the world, USA included.

Among their most outstanding successes, one may note The Great War (La Grande guerra, 1959), Everybody home! (Tutti a casa, 1960), Best of Enemies (1962), The Organizer (I Compagni, 1963), Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 1967), In Nome del popolo italiano (In the Name of the Italian people, 1971) and We All Loved Each Other So Much (C'eravamo tanto amati, 1974).

Age-Scarpelli also wrote the screenplay and dialogues for what I believe is the greatest comic movie of the talkies : L'Armata Brancaleone (Brancaleone's Army, 1966).

After Dino Risi's Sciemo di guerra (1986), they went their separate ways. In fact, since their early days Age and Scarpelli had been famous in Italy's cinematographic circles for their terrible quarrels. Part of the creative process, I suppose !

Still writing movies in the 21st century, Furio Scarpelli is 86 years old.

I just wanted to thank him.