Life as Charles 3: the review

Carlo Verdone is the Fiorello of cinema, in the sense that, just like the Sicilian showman, Verdone has acquired a caliber and credibility that allows him to have fun with the product he feels is most suited to him without anyone turning up their noses. That product has been for Verdone for some time Life as Carloa little gem available on Paramount+ and produced by Luigi and Aurelio De Laurentiis in which the actor can have the luxury of imagining himself in situations that he would never accept in everyday life. How to lead and be the artistic director of Sanremo Festivalbecause it is good that Carlo Verdone is one of the most refined connoisseurs of international music that we have in Italy, but it is also true that, again for the caliber and credibility we wrote about a few lines above, to risk everything to tread a stage where everything you do becomes amplified frankly you wouldn’t need it. However, Carlo Verdone loves to play and have fun with himself, his character and everything that revolves around himfrom the selfies that passers-by ask him at the most inopportune moments to the fetish for medicine bottles which for Verdone – we now know – have never had any secrets.

The result is one season – the third, while fortunately, a fourth is already in the works – chock full of fascinating paintings and an art that Verdone has always shown in Italy to handle with extreme familiarity: mixing the comic and dramatic registers together with great harmony and intelligence. To scenes that are nothing short of wonderful like Gianna Nannini who, offended by the rejection of one of her (bad) songs entrusted to a young newcomer in Sanremo, attacks Carlo Verdone in the bathtub as in Psycho – complete with a sharp knife, black and white and very light tiles – or how Gianni Morandi who, disguised as Detective Colombo, questions Carlo about all the gems of the past Festival, Life as Carlo it also inserts deeper and never predictable fragments within it. Like the housekeeper who tries to cure his gambling addiction and the daughter (Caterina De Angelis) who pays postpartum depression which leads her to find a job in Milan instead of spending time with her creature.

In this microcosm written to perfection by Verdone himself together with Nicola Guaglianone and Menotti we can expect anything: that Carlo Verdone takes part in an evening of swingers in style Eyes Wide Shut – note the detail of putting the glasses over the mask – but also that Maccio Capatonda take lithium to treat your depression, passing through Ema Stokholma, chosen by Carlo as co-host of Sanremo, desperate at having been left by her boyfriend who – spoiler – cheated on her. Lots of guest stars – from Zucchero met in the airport waiting room to Nino D’Angelo – and, incredibly, the predictions were right as in Simpsonsconsidering that Lucio Corsichosen for his Festival by Carlo Verdone with the complicity of Roberto D’Agostino, will actually go to Sanremo in 2025. And what can we say about the opening credits of the Christmas episode, which reflect the characters of those of Vanzini’s cinepanettoni; Monica Guerritore and Stefania Rocca who go to Sanremo in a convertible with a scarf on their heads like Thelma and Louise; the antihistamic that Carlo Verdone gives to Ema Stokholma to make her fall asleepthe cameo of the late Ernesto Assante and that wonderful joke about catering which productions almost always tend to save money on? All this is Life of Charles 3which we recommend you rush to catch up on Paramount+ immediately because we all desperately need jewels of such Verdonian brilliance.