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Rating: I never understood why, to be considered a true cinephile, you have to speak highly of Totò! The great Totò, the unapproachable Totò! The untouchable Totò! If someone dares to say "Totò sucks," then you automatically don't understand a damn thing about cinema. Maybe the guy who judges you as inexperienced just because you've criticized De Curtis hasn't even seen one of his films, but speaking well of Totò makes you look like an expert!
I think we should cut down on cinematic clichés, for example, we should find the courage to say... that Totò was a mediocre talent, poorly exploited, and incredibly boring! With simple-minded comedy, for Sunday family viewing, for the average Neapolitan, for housewives who, while ironing their husband's clothes in the evening, watch a Totò movie on Tele A, ignorant people who laugh heartily at jokes like "Oops. Excuse me.. I didn't know you had a balloon for a head" and exclaim while laughing "how crazy is Totò hahahahaha.... What a rascal." BOREDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Completely outdated humor, from 1200 B.C., stale jokes, funny only at the time, with those damn IOUs! And other things... tell me he's funny, tell me he's talented because he managed to write a play overnight, but don't tell me that when you watch him you laugh your head off; at most, you smile, the humor is static, it doesn’t take off, the jokes are weak, pseudo-spicy humor (only at that time), oops he made a joke about the dancer’s thigh! What a rascal!!!!!!!!!! BLEAAAAA. BORING BORING BORING.... TOTO' DOES NOT MAKE YOU LAUGH!!!!!!!!!! I don't like it; I don't like him or his audience of housewives and laborers who identify with that character in the evening because they feel average like him. But have you ever seen the Marx Brothers????? What rhythm! What timing! What gags! They are the VIAGRA in comparison! Totò is an IV drip of boredom! He only has a mere face of a Mask, a clown mask that serves to embellish dictionaries on film history; there isn't a dictionary or COOL documentary that doesn't feature Curtis's face to make it "very film history." If you open a cinema-themed restaurant and don’t hang a picture of Totò on the walls, you’re not cool; you don’t give the impression of being an expert. This untouchable for me is very touchable. The comedians of the '80s are superior! Take that genius Paolo Villaggio with the first four Fantozzi films, and tell me who’s more genius; instead of putting Villaggio's films under the label "Trash," put Totò in the TRASH! The involuntary one.
"Totò à Paris" is a complete anesthetic to shoot up before an operation, they ran out of anesthesia? They play Totò à Paris on a TV, and the patient falls like a rotten pear. A dull film, full of clichés and endless stupid gags! Totò on the train at the beginning of the film is embarrassing; it looks like a Sketch put on by vacation village animators (who'd do it better), such banal humor, that's just disgusting. And then... this idea of lookalikes!! Enough already! All the stars of this world have done a movie with their double! One rich, the other poor, enough! Seeing Totò doubled means multiplying the swelling of your balls! Maybe at the time, it seemed incredible to show two Totòs in the same shot with the split-screen trick, but today it’s just pathetic! There are comedians whose humor stands the test of time. Totò has only a timeless face, which, as I repeat, serves to enrich cinema dictionaries. A film like "Totò à Paris" today can be aired only to Neapolitans tuned in to Tele A at night.
Moreover.. weak direction, repetitive shots, nauseating editing, and then.. those damn annoying antics! That neck he moves like a chicken, those side steps, the puppet moves, always! Always! And everyone shouts "how talentooooo" the low plebs applaud! Damn, I prefer Franco Franchi! When he played the mannequin or robot, he was monstrous! But you.. true connoisseurs.. would never compare Franchi to Curtis.
I hate judging something positively just because THE MASSES judge it as such. I judge something based on my taste. Totò does not amuse, "Totò à Paris" literally SUCKS! And in the historical pages of my personal cinema dictionary, I prefer to put images of Jerry Lewis or Villaggio, unbeatable masks that made you laugh till you wet your pants. Against the face of this pseudo-untouchable!
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