Thirty-five years after the first of three Amici Miei movies was filmed in Florence, Mario Monicelli returns to Piazza Santo Spirito on June 6 to assist in the re-enactment of one of the most popular scenes of the blockbuster trilogy. Organized by two natives of the Santo Spirito neighbourhood, film director Federico Micali and film producer Francesco Conforti, the event will feature a re-enactment of the last scene in Amici Miei Act 1: the funeral of the film’s ‘gypsy’ journalist Perozzi who worked at La Nazione. Four cameras will film more than a thousand extras wearing masks-so everyone in the crowd can become one of the amici miei-in the celebrated piazza. The event will be filmed without copyright for distribution online and on DVD.
‘It’s an ode to Florence,’ said Conforti, ‘to my neighbourhood, which doesn’t need to be presented but lived and experienced by all; in this area, it’s still possible to experience the essence of times past. Merchants in the area praised this project, confirming the great important of the [Amici Miei film] series in Florence… people are coming from across Italy to take part.’
‘In a moment when there is renewed interest in this film series, and the debate on the prequel by Neri Parenti, we like the idea of having an event that could involve everyone and remember the originality of the first film,’ explained Micali.
For more information on the L’ultima zingarata event in Santo Spirito, join the Facebook group ‘Amici miei – L’ultima zingarata.’
Amici Miei is a wildly popular Italian comedy-drama directed by Mario Monicelli in 1975. The Italian box-office hit was followed by two sequels: Amici Miei: Atto II (1982, also by Monicelli) and Amici Miei: Atto III (1985), which was directed by Nanni Loy. The films tell the story of four friends (‘the gyspys’) in Florence who together organize pranks, or zingarate. Amici Miei nel 400 is the prequel to the film series currently being filmed in Tuscany (Certaldo, San Gimignano, Pistoia and Florence) and set in the 1400s in Florence. Directed by Neri Parenti, the prequel features the original four characters but, this time, they live in the age of Boccaccio and the Medici.
