Tuesday, 11 August 2020

Saturnino Farandola: King of Fashionistas Part 1

https://anni607080edintorni.wordpress.com/2018/10/20/1977-saturnino-farandola-mariano-rigillo-paperino-della-girandola/

"Extraordinary journeys of Saturnino Farandola in the 5 or 6 parts of the world and in all the countries visited and not visited by Giulio Verne" (Voyages très extraordinaires de Saturnin Farandoul dans le 5 ou 6 parties du monde visited and ne pas visités par Jules Verne) , is a fantasy-exotic novel written by the French writer, illustrator and journalist Albert Robida in 1879. Robida, who has made several books dealing with science fiction, adventure, history, etc. he also illustrated the novel with many beautiful drawings.

The novel tells of the adventures and misadventures of Saturnino Farandola, who, torn by a storm from the ship he was on board with his parents, finds himself, still a child, on an island in Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean inhabited by large monkeys. from which it is bred. But he does not adapt to the life of monkeys and, when he becomes an adult, he goes to sea and is taken aboard the "Bella Leocadia" of the commander "Earthworm". During their travels, they land on an island in Borneo where they find large turtles that sailors enjoy riding; they suffer the attack of Malaysian pirates and the commander Earthworm leaves us his feathers; then Saturnino succeeds him in command and thus begins a series of journeys around the world and also in space, meeting many famous characters created by Jules Verne.

The first is Captain Nemo with his Nautilus, who intervenes to help the sailors against the pirates. From the Mysterious Island, Farandola then reaches Australia, with the ship being pulled by a whale; then the United States where, among Indians and bandits, he meets Fogg who has embarked on a new journey around the world to beat his previous record. The two characters meet again in Nicaragua, divided between the southern state, where Fogg is located, and the northern one, where Saturnino is located. The two states enter the war and the two characters lead their respective troops using futuristic and bizarre weapons. The winner is Saturnino, who then leaves again for his fantastic travels, in Africa and even in space reaching Saturn. Back on Earth we find him in Asia looking for the lost "White Elephant" in Siam, then India, Tibet, China, Japan, North Pole and Russia. Finally he returns to his island of Pomotù where he ends his wandering in the company of his dear monkeys.

The film and the script.

An Italian silent film was shot on the character in 1913: "The extraordinary adventures of Saturnino Farandola", directed and starring Marcel Fabre, with Nilde Baracchi (Mysora) and others. The film consists of 4 episodes: "The island of the monkeys", "In search of the white elephant", "The queen of the Makalolos", "Farandola against Fogg". And a television script was also made, again in Italian, which started on Thursday 7 April 1977 on Rete Due within the "Tv2 Ragazzi": "Saturnino Farandola"; screenplay by Raffaele Meloni and Norman Mozzato; scenography by Paolo Petti; music by Ettore De Carolis; directed by Raffaele Meloni. 13 episodes lasting about half an hour each made at the studios of the Naples TV Production Center.

The protagonist is played by the Italian actor Mariano Rigillo, in the double guise of protagonist and narrator. Among the other protagonists we have: Attilio Cucari (Bora-Bora, the leader of the pirates), Emilio Marchesini (Mandibola), Silvio Anselmo (Capitan Lombrico), Daria Nicolodi (Bumbaja, the right arm of Bora Bora), Giovanni Poggiali, Donatina De Carolis, Bonnie Foy, Claudia Lawrence and Flavio Colombaioni (Saturnino as a child).

In the first broadcast, which ended on June 2, 1977, only 9 of the 13 episodes were broadcast; the remaining 4 (plus 1 link) were broadcast in December of the same year. It was re-broadcast, in full in the first rerun which began on June 2, 1980 and ended on the 30 of the same month. Each episode began with the audience waiting in the 1896 “Lumiere” cinema room; with different characteristic "characters": the "Impatient" lady, the "Emotional" one, the "Romantic", the "Curiosa", the gentleman "with the bowler", the "Well informed" one, "the Ironic", and so on . In the drama, of the five continents crossed by Farandola's travels, there are only three: Oceania, Asia and Africa, before returning to the island of Pomotù.



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