Master's degree honoris causa alla memoria to Antonio de Curtis, aka Totò

April 15 will mark the 50th anniversary of the passing of the great Totò, the "Prince of Laughter" (1898-1967).

Froma proposal by Renzo Arbore, who has always been passionate about the great artist, the University of Naples Federico II will confer to the unforgettable Antonio De Curtis an honorary degree in memory in "Disciplines of Music and Entertainment. History and Theory. "

The ceremony of conferring the prestigious academic title will be held on Wednesday, April 5, at 12 noon, in theAula Magna Storica of the Neapolitan University, in the presence of Rector Gaetano Manfredi, Director of the Department of Humanistic Studies Edoardo Massimilla, Matteo Angelo Palumbo, professor of Italian Literature at the Federico II, and Maestro Renzo Arbore.

From the Athenaeum among the oldest in Italy and the world, a Laurea alla memoria to Prince Antonio De Curtis "for having embodied and brought to the screen all the "articulations" of show business: from mimicry to comedy, which were particularly spontaneous for him, to theater and film, acquired from a long personal experience that Totò lived and was able to capture. A culture that also reflects a noble Neapolitan-ness that, in his artistic and social career, he always naturally represented," is how Renzo Arbore tells the initiative , who, on April 5, at the awarding of the Laurea to Totò, will dedicate a special "Laudatio" to him.

Renzo Arbore "Totò rode all facets of acting and humor. A truly complete actor. I think, therefore, that there is no more deserving person to receive a memorial degree, almost unique in its kind."

"Antonio De Curtis, aka Totò," recalls Gaetano Manfredi, " was undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary performers of Italian comic theater and film, leaving incisive contributions also as a playwright, poet, lyricist and singer. His commitment as an actor and his resounding, unforgettable physical motility were able to draw on the great tradition of the commedia dell'arte, but also to exploit-as Pier Paolo Pasolini and Carmelo Bene, his great admirers, did not fail to readily note-the very close relationship between puppetry and the human body theorized and practiced by the historical avant-gardes. Born and raised before the 1940s, Totò was able to stage, in theater, film and television, the typically Italian post-World War II tendency for the fusion between the 'people' and the 'petty bourgeoisie,' still attracted to the aristocracy: 'Prince De Curtis.'"

"Totò's perhaps most decisive contribution," Arturo De Vivo points out, " however, was the one he offered - as Tullio De Mauro already recalled - to Italian history and linguistic consciousness. Totò's memorable linguistic creativity has in fact delivered to Italian fortunate neologisms (remember the "pinzillacchere"), exhilarating linguistic games, alienating witticisms, alterations and lexical deformations capable of corrosive parodies of the most trite clichés. A masterful and successful lesson in verbal and physical acrobatics, skillful possession of stage space, overwhelming, almost surrealistic, comic displays, but also of moving, penetrating, tragic humanity delivered to some of the most precious films of Italian cinematography, such as Steno and Monicelli's Guardie e ladri, Eduardo's Napoli milionaria, Mario Monicelli's I soliti ignoti, Vittorio De Sica's L'oro di Napoli, Pierpaolo Pasolini's Uccellacci e uccellini."

The face was a mask of the Commedia dell'Arte, the language created expressions and locutions that have entered spoken Italian, the genius of transforming his immense talent into so many sublime forms. Totò will forever be in the collective imagination, in the cultural stereotypes of the most celebrated Italy in the world - such as cuisine, the art of the Renaissance, melody and opera, the natural beauty of our Bel Paese. An artistic and human heritage, he is the artist with the most epigones in the Spectacle, who, with his black and white films once united peasant, proletarian and bourgeois Italy, and today continues to grow and refine entire generations.