Och’s Weekend Movie: Totò Al Giro D’Italia

May 13th, 2007 by ikiro

From left to right: Alberic Briek Schotte, Gino Bartali, Fiorenzo Magni, Giordano Cottur, Totò (in the foreground, with his stunt double [I think] in the background), Louison Bobet, Fausto Coppi, and Ferdi Kübler.

I campioni del ciclismo thought that smoking cigars was perhaps the source of Totò’s cycling success, so next day they were all seen at the stage start with various cigars. Coppi gets the biggest cigar, and the biggest laughs.

What better way to celebrate the 90th edition of the Giro d’Italia than with Totò Al Giro D’Italia (1948) featuring the most famosi i campioni del ciclismo from Italy.

To place i campioni del Giro d’Italia a bit more in perspective, it were the heroic victories of il Mistico that prevented an Italian civil war later that summer. And it were de IJzeren and le Boulanger de Saint-Méen who saw him ride away on the flanks of d’Izoard (more on that this July). And for many tifosi, il Campionissimo is still the greatest campionissimo of all time (greater than il Cannibale?), which is in todays Giro commemorated by the Cima Coppi. Encora, Il Leone delle Fiandre’s record of three consecutive wins of De Ronde still remains to be broken. And although mostly remembered by his impulsive but sometimes strategically-unwise attacks reminding us of the Boemeltrein van Kasterlee, the Cowboy is still the oldest living vincitora della Grande Boucle. So, quite an impressive gruppo if I may say so, if it wasn’t for a little professore that almost defeated all of them.

Although my italian is limited to the obvious Ciao bella! Focci inna Fiat? and the absence of any subtitles, I found the storyline pretty easy to follow. Il Professor Totò Casamandrei (Antonio de Curtis Gagliardi Griffo Focas Comneno) falls in love with the bella Doriana (Isa Barzizza), a miss Italia that only will answer his love if Totò wins the Giro d’Italia. Lacking of any cycling skills or whatsoever, Totò turns to il Diavolo (Carlo Micheluzzi) to sell his soul or beard, there I want to be off from being, to become vincitore del Giro d’Italia. So all goes as planned, which results into some hilarious scenes in which Totò totally [sic] pulferizes his competition, leading to their desperate resort into all kinds of performance stimulating matters, such as humongously large Cuban cigars. Of course, the story turns into the obvious as Totò tries to bail out from his contract with il Diavolo. For what exact reason I have no clue (I was too impressed by all those campioni del ciclismo), but it certainly has to something with shaving off his beard (Samson anyone?). However, Totò’s efforts to loose the Giro yield some pretty humorous scenes, in which we see some fine acting and crazy bekkentrekkerij.

Its use of i campioni del ciclismo for secondary roles and the cycling scenes shot on location in beautiful Lombardian landscapes makes Totò Al Giro D’Italia an early example of Italian Neorealism. A genre whose most renowned representative features at the Och theater before this year’s vincitore will be known. Just a little side note, the film was shot when i campioni were preparing for la classica delle foglie morte, which explains the rainbow colors of il campione del monde that Schotte obtained in that fall in Valkenburg.

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