Thirty years together, two artists and a shared privacy. Choices always shared?
Valentine: Always shared. For us privacy is the first commandment. Consider that neither of you knows anything about the other.
Except: But that is due to the fact that there is total mutual contempt. We don't trust ourselves. At least I don't trust him.
Valentine: Honestly, I don't like him either!
That's how it works with them. Even the most serious things, as sacred as confidentiality, Ficarra and Picone know how to translate them into their unmistakable language. And if irony is used, those same things, serious and sacred, remain longer, they go deeper, they are better fixed. Maybe it's the strength of reverse psychology, you certainly end up keeping them in mind, converting them into positives, taking away that dark aura of prohibition from them and they even turn into possibilities. Possibility of intimacy, possibility of keeping a bit of life for oneself, possibility of guarding oneself, of not exposing oneself, of not being used, misunderstood, hated.
This may be why, when (immediately, without hesitation) Valentino and Salvo have agreed to be testimonials of the Privacy Tour Messina 2024, they chose to be there with the most congenial register. To talk about awareness. How important it is not to blurt out everything real inside the virtual world. How fundamental it is to make the difference between inside and outside, to think about the fact that “if the private becomes public then there is one word too many… private!”. And 'private' is not just a word, it is rather a concept, a crystal container, delicate and transparent, which is filled with existence. To advise using your brain before selling your soul to the internet. So to describe secrecy one can even bother “Caesar, the great conqueror, who if he had gone on social media to announce the invasion of Gaul, they would have expected it and we would have written another story”. For example.
There is this and much more in the video message with which they will speak at the opening of the meeting at the Vittorio Emanuele theater. Therefore, President Morgante wanted to thank them on behalf of the Ses Group, for the way in which “they fully and with great generosity shared the aims of raising awareness of the initiative regarding the value of personal data and the responsible use of the web, and they wanted to commit themselves to offering the public a contribution of undisputed value with their sagacious, irresistible irony”.
Salvo Ficarra and Valentino Picone are entertainers with an analogue life behind them. They are artists who have lived the before and the after, one world and the other…
Is it true that boomers have less difficulty distinguishing public and private plans than digital natives?
Except: There is no doubt that today the boundary between public and private is more blurred in general. It's up to us, and us alone, to defend our position. The problem arises when, out of habit, by posting several times a day, we no longer see that boundary.
Valentine: The escalation is always lurking, you start by telling the world the place where you spend your holiday, you continue with photos of your pets and you get to the publication of your “pet children”. And the border is so far behind us.
Your relationship with followers? Have you ever been trapped in the network of fans who “claim” to insert themselves into the artists' lives off stage? How do you take measures without losing consensus?
Valentine: It hasn't happened to us, perhaps because we have never used them to give away very personal aspects of our lives.
Except: Or maybe because we start from the presumption that our fans don't give a damn about what we do in private. And then, if I had to tell you what Picone does in his private life, we would be bored to death.
Revenge porn, cyberbullying, sharenting… artificial intelligence! How do you do it with today's children?
Except: We need to remind them that there are no real “friends” on social media. Those are already difficult to find in real life. So much so that the saying is clear: whoever finds a friend, finds a treasure. On social media we find fake treasures.
Valentine: But the effort in this sense must be common: family, school, mass media. However, we often notice that for an extra click even journalism sells its soul to the devil. You will say: but it is democracy. No! It's curtigghiu!
Except Ficarra and Valentino Picone, the comic duo (Sicilian from Palermo) capable of moving. They who travel in tandem, who (un)speak to each other in harmony. A de facto couple with millions of spectators in theaters and TV, in front of and behind the camera. From that “Born tired” which opened their path to cinema in 2002 to the latest film, “Santocielo”, to talk about love without superstructures. Passing the experience in series with “Incastrati” and through the absolute triumph of “La Stranezza”. Until the latest job which sees them busy on set these days. It's called “L'abbaglio”, it tells the story of the expedition of the Thousand.
Again directed by Roberto Andò, again with Toni Servillo, again in Sicily. The next film that “Abbaglio” will be?
Except: It will be a beautiful dazzle. And then Roberto Andò's way of approaching stories is extraordinarily empathetic.
Valentine: We with Andò and Servillo would also challenge Brazil in 1970.
What does Salvo owe to Valentino and what vice versa?
Except: He's the one who owes me everything! And he knows it. Except he doesn't write it on social media because it pertains to his private sphere.
Valentine: It is true! I owe everything to him, but please don't write it. I trust you!
Together you were so many. Ever imagined a future as singles?
Salvo and Valentino: As individuals, no, but we have done, are doing and will continue to do things individually: directing, theatrical adaptations or roles in other films.
The first 3 things that Salvo would do as mayor of Palermo (naturally with Valentino as deputy)…
Except: I can't tell you for privacy. First you vote for me, and then maybe we'll start talking about the electoral program. I only make post-dated promises!