21/10/2011

"The best week of my life", Paolo fantasises thinking about the seven days that stand between now and his marriage to his beloved Margherita. Without imagining that those very seven days will turn into a real nightmare, in which nothing will go as planned. Paolo and Margherita, played by Fabio De Luigi and Cristiana Capotondi, are the main characters of the new comedy about to come out on Italian screens, La peggior settimana della mia vita. With this first work, the playwright Alessandro Genovesi (author of the show Happy Family, on which Gabriele Salvatores based the film by the same title in 2009), took on the challenge of making a classic Anglo-Saxon-style comedy, based on situations rather than one-liners, which gives a wink to Blake Edwards and Billy Wilder, and in particular to the Peter Sellers of Hollywood Party.

Inspired by an English BBC series (The Worst Week of My Life), the film, written by the director together with Fabio DeLuigi, rests in fact on the mechanism of gaffs, wrong moves, white lies which only serve to make situations even more embarrassing and which push the main character and husband-to-be into a whirlwind of tragic-comical events. Starting with the relationship with the stern future parents-in-law, brilliantly played by Antonio Catania and an unprecedented Monica Guerritore, who don’t look on him very favourably, and who will generate hilarious gags similar to those between Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro in Meet the Parents, complete with the inevitable family pet (there it was Mr Jinx, here it is the dog Ettore), worshipped like a god and destined for a bad ending.

The whole thing is complemented by a good set of supporting roles: the ever more popular Chiara Francini (seen this year in Femmine contro maschi [+see also:
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The ending is open, bets are on for a sequel: "Why not, the material is there", admits Genovesi, considering that The Worst Week of My Life has reached its third season. "If the audience laughs, the sequel will be made", assures producer Maurizio Totti. La peggior settimana della mia vita is produced by Colorado Film in collaboration with RTI and will be out in Italy on October 28 distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures in a substantial number of copies: 400.

(Translated from Italian)