The Unforgettable Comedy of Massimo Troisi Fri.-Thurs., April 29-May 5 Before ...

| 17 Feb 2015 | 02:08

    le Comedy of Massimo Troisi

    Fri.-Thurs., April 29-May 5

    Before his death, which occurred poetically on the last day of shooting for Il Postino, Massimo Troisi crafted a comedy style all his own, one that made him a celebrity in his native Italy: shambling, offbeat, slightly absurd, tinged with streaks of drama. Troisi himself played an offbeat comic hero, whose humor emerged from his fumbling, discombobulated manner and tendency to remain at a stuttering loss when confronted with a new situation.

    Troisi was a certain brand of stereotypical Italian male, taken to the nth degree. His debut feature, I'm Starting from Three (1981), part of the Walter Reade's Troisi series, is one of the most hearing-impaired-friendly films ever made. Watching bumbling traveller Gaetano (Troisi) and his friend Lello engage in verbal intercourse, we are assaulted by a barrage of hand gestures-fingers flying in triangular, palms-out, chin-music formations. Troisi plays a Neapolitan bored of his dead-end job in an orange-soda factory who decides to take an extended holiday in Florence.

    There he meets Marta (Fiorenza Marchegiani), a nurse in a mental hospital, and encounters some of Firenze's strangest characters, a cornucopia of oddballs wielding small annoyances. Troisi is at his strongest in these rendezvous, his straight-man sincerity yielding the spotlight with grace. Yet, I'm Starting from Three is hobbled by the flat lighting and camera movement of a sitcom, which, mingled with the film's unsettling toggling between comedy and drama, adds up to a movie less funny than it thinks it is.

    Nothing Left to Do But Cry (1984), co-directed with Roberto Benigni, is a forerunner to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, with Troisi and Benigni starring as two totally gnarly schoolteachers who find themselves transported back to the late 15th century. The film is mostly an excuse for the two funnymen to get down with the year 1492 while wearing a string of silly hats and costumes. Troisi takes advantage of being five centuries up on all the neighbors by telling the local hottie that he's a songwriter, then singing her a snatch of the Beatles' "Yesterday." Running into Leonardo Da Vinci, they take him for a hopeless dunce after proving unable to grasp the concept of trains, flush toilets or Karl Marx. Troisi and Benigni make a solid comedy team, Benigni's irrepressible ebullience just the right condiment for Troisi's underplayed manner.

    Walter Reade Theater, 65th St. (betw. B'way & Amsterdam Ave.), 212-875-5600.