Between the fragrant sheets of the immortal soul (they are all there except the soul Marilyn Monroe a little more), in his earthly incarnation as a writer – a person has a thousand and one talents – Filippo Timi in addition to the legendary cloud of Chanel number 5, he found handfuls of dust of truth with which to illuminate a book telling about the most beautiful woman who ever existed on earth, of course, but also abundantly about him. It is in the subtle transfer between the author and the plot that eros and thanatos are disguised so as not to be recognized: a blonde hairstyle, a little black dress and stilettos, as if Marilyn were a new role for Filippo, almost without his knowledge: bolder than Mrs. Tale in Fairy tale, yes strakult theatrical, the number of performances of which has been lost, more daring than any femininity brought to consciousness, as Carmelo Bene described the profession of the actor.
“MARILYN, RIHANNA: SOME WOMEN ARE ATOMIC BOMBES OF FREEDOM…TODAY THERE IS A NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE NEW FEMININITY”
From anxiety, The more I’m dyingdebut Bildungsroman (2006), Marilyna long story to come that exposes our fragility, seventeen years have passed, full of work and other things, some gray threads have appeared in the electric beard of the ex-boyfriend from Ponte San Giovanni (Perugia), but the hyperboles have not lost their power and the metaphors continue to set off fireworks, his activity as a writer is the key to the activity of an actor but it retains the feeling of great revelation, because in telling we are telling ourselves. And so, the man who disguises himself has captivated the public (“in Italy we continue to take the damned model of the patriarchal family for granted: all discrimination arises from there, and it is convenient for us men not to see certain things”), undresses the woman par excellence, Norma Jeane Mortenson Baker Monroe, until she becomes lifeless and fleshless, but – spoiler alert – alive: with Marilyn’s latest twist, Marilyn Timi survives on her own and, having changed clothes, leaves for Rome.
Why a book about Marilyn today, Filippo?
“I’ll be corny because that’s one of the starting points of acting: are you here or are you doing it? To be or not to be? I felt there was a need to talk about new femininity in a new way.”
What is the new femininity? Is Marilyn, with her exposed and intense sensuality, an eternal repetition of the stereotype and at the same time an unattainable point of reference?
“I looked at photos of a friend’s wedding and thought: h…, the groom has become a bride! Today they are all brides, even straight ones. The truth is that we are all Marilyn Monroe, we all walk the precarious line between supplication and prayer. Marilyn isn’t hot on current events, but at this point it’s like Barack Obama lying to Michelle so she could sneak out and get Beyoncé into bed. Boom!”.
And what should we do about stereotypes?
“Thanks to feminine sensitivity, I achieve everything I can. But I understand perfectly well that nipples on men are of no use except for arousal: they are just a reminder that everyone is born female. In fact, we are all Marilyn: the clothes change, but the underlying existential insecurity is always the same.”
Even a request for love will probably remain the same forever and ever.
“Every being on the planet asks for love and understanding. What if Marilyn and Kennedy hadn’t used each other? What if it really was great love? After all, we are talking about a man and a woman, of course, about the most beautiful woman in the world and the President of the United States of America, but still about two people. The consolation is that Marilyn, like everyone else, had hairy legs. Like Coca-Cola, Marilyn came from an ape: she was not an alien, but a man.”
Are your Marilyn and Mrs. Fairytale friends or even relatives? “Mrs. Fairytale never crossed my mind when I was writing the book. In this case, it is the masculine that opposes the hyper-feminine: we are in small-town America in the 1950s. Marilyn is rather the embodiment of something extraordinary; men present her as a figurehead at the bow of the boat. It must not have been easy to be Marilyn: from the Big Bang, through poisonous clouds and dinosaurs, think of the haste with which she was born…”
How will we know that Marilyn is alive in 2023?
“The living are the immortality of the dead. As long as I have the smile of my mother Luciana, she will be here with me. I have great power to make her live forever: this thought eases my feeling of helplessness.”
“THE LIVING IS THE IMMORTALITY OF THE DEAD. AS LONG AS MY MOTHER LUCIANA’S SMILE IS PRESENT IN ME, SHE WILL BE HERE”
What kind of writer are you, Timi? What habits does it produce?
“Sometimes I get up at night, sometimes I write continuously for many mornings in a row. The origin of Marilyn was that the first draft came out two years ago, then it came back, and then it took me a while to focus on it better. It was an obsession for a while: luckily I was doing something else, film and theater, and the obsession gave way to a very busy job. I function better when I do more things together.”
The book also contains his drawings.
“When I’m studying the script, memorizing or writing the text, I sometimes ruin some of the drawings. They remain the same, schematic: you can interpret them, make associations, give the interpretation that you like. I balance between illustration and doodle.”
There are also anecdotes of his own composition.
“I really like the one about the horse Max II from Bavaria. A horse that knew how to improve and achieved success in more than two thousand exhibitions: it has a sensitive brain, it understood the wishes of the public and supported them. Fictional and autobiographical story: Because I have developed a sense of empathy, I understand myself and others better.”
Who do you think is the most Marilyn of our time?
“Marilyn is a timeless fairy tale, the story of a princess who agrees to be herself. So today it can only be Rihanna: I was amazed by her Super Bowl halftime concert last February, pregnant, in a red jumpsuit that didn’t leave an inch of skin exposed, without having to show off her butt, which there’s nothing wrong with that anyway . Elodie, for example, plays with her femininity very well. Iconic women, images that remain in the memory, like an eternal photo of Marilyn’s skirt lifted by a gust of wind from the subway. Some women are atomic bombs of freedom.”
Are you ready to do anything to protect him?
“I don’t know that… But I know that Marilyn, like all geniuses, suffered from her genius.”
Is it true that the actor brought femininity to consciousness? Do you agree?
“Exactly! Carmelo Bene was a genius and he was right, this is a phrase I have always quoted, it gives me an idea of the dialogue. If I think of an actor who goes on stage with a hard face, that is, we are already in conflict: let’s see who has more grievances… Instead, having a friendly attitude, ready to exchange, is a thousand times more constructive. I had the best meetings with directors who did not impose their vision on me, but rather accepted the dialogue.”
A cliché, but also a great truth about femininity as the cradle of motherhood.
“I try to go beyond clichés. O God, I speak of myself as if I were all mankind…! Boom! In short, I think of femininity as something soft and sweet: for men, femininity is real motherhood, then at a certain point a form of emancipation may intervene, but I admit that I am still glued to this imprint. On the other hand, for a newborn, the first mirror is the gaze of the mother who is breastfeeding him. Then, as adults, whether we like it or not, we all become our mothers’ view of the world. That’s the actor’s job.”
“FOR A MAN, FEMININITY IS REAL MOTHERHOOD, AND I MYSELF ADMIT THAT I AM STILL ATTACHED TO THIS TRAIL…”
So, only art will save us?
“What will save us is the recognition that everything is unfinished: the greatest flaw in life is precisely incompleteness. But when there is no sun, it does not mean that it has disappeared: it is hidden behind the clouds.”
Filippo will turn 50 next year. Is it too early to try to create a balance?
“Eh, sooner or later we will have to make budgets… If I think about the past, I see a red thread. Theater became work and expanded: writing, cinema, books, texts, dubbing. The wool has turned white, but also brightened: some things are no longer essential, and it’s good that I didn’t feel the impulse or need to replace them.”
And tomorrow?
– I don’t know, who knows? Ultimately, infinity lies between two grains of rice.”