Roberto Vecchioni
Hollywood Hollywood

Before I begin, I wanted to remind users that this record has already been reviewed, before me, by another user, namely Pibroch. I say this for fairness, because it’s a step I ignored in one of the last reviews I wrote for this site, mea culpa, but it’s also true that so far, I have mostly reviewed albums that were previously absent.

Why write about 'Hollywood Hollywood' again?! There are reasons! Firstly, because to me, it deserves a nice 9.

This LP is the last one before 'Il grande sogno', considered (according to a thesis present somewhere on this site) the turning point in the professor's career. It's a thesis I share, especially if you divide his production according to the theme, each time important: that is unrequited love, or felt as absence (which characterizes the albums of the '70s and up to this one), and reciprocated, realized, and less idealized love (which starts from 'Il grande sogno' to find significant resonance in many later songs).

With 'Hollywood Hollywood', the first part ends, his best moment concludes (my personal opinion), but it also ends a kind of small, great pseudo-autobiographical novel, already unintentionally started with 'Irene', a few years earlier. The professor's partner will often be a present and relevant figure, so much so that it characterizes a good part of the albums of the '70s. Their story ends, and the artistic journey culminates in the LP 'Montecristo', this one here, which follows, consists precisely of the final credits and the final considerations.

Final credits, indeed, because to the personal story, the pretext of developing a particular theme: cinema is added; and the idea that often what happens to us, that seems great and important to us, is the projection of something that happens within us, of our story, which is not necessarily shared or experienced in the same way by a partner or anyone involved. How much is this consideration relevant to his personal story with his partner? The record seems to say a lot; the essence of the album is precisely reclaiming one's things, starting to see reality for what it is, not for the scenic fiction that we (would have) liked so much. A love ended badly, now that the waters are calm, it's time to understand how much truth there was and how much instead might have been a great show constructed by the tendency to idealize, typical of people who, during childhood, were very close to their mother.

The songs are few, all irresistible: the famous 'Dentro agli occhi', even today almost always on the setlist, very hermetic and ambiguous (does the protagonist meet and dialogue with his old self, or is the protagonist an old man meeting his younger self?) in any case, the meeting point of the two characters is the eyes, the only organs that do not change, and where it's possible to find the person left behind, even a long time ago.

'Sestri Levante' is one of the songs that most expresses the somewhat extravagant theories a few lines up: the story is already over, there remains the time and lucidity to truly look at that period from the outside, and to ask oneself if one was loving a woman or just oneself.

'Casa dolce casa' is the song in which the sense of precariousness, or rather, of transition, felt in every phrase, in every chord of the album is best expressed. The key to understanding the LP can be found by reading between the lines of some verses of this song:

"New house, my house, where maybe someone is waiting

we two will make a great journey around the world.

Old house, my house, if at night someone makes love

pretend to sleep with me."

The house, in short, from being a symbol, albeit sweet, of a difficult, hostile relationship, finally becomes 'old', past, in view, perhaps, of a new house, of a new love, or maybe just a new idea of love.