Totò, acteur rebelle des productions italiennes subalternes des années 1940-1950

Abstract

Two emblematic figures of Neapolitan folklore were brought to the screen by the actor Totò: the pazzariello, a town crier and the jettatore, the “spellcaster”. Charged with complex symbolism mixing superstition and social satire, they offer fertile ground for the analysis of popular representations and their evolution over time. By embodying these roles in film, Totò not only entertained the public but also contributed to revaluing a little-known part of Italian cultural heritage. Through the study of these characters, it is possible to explore the complex relationships between tradition and modernity, between popular beliefs and rationality, as well as the way in which cinema can serve as a vector of cultural transmission and transformation. A veritable mask of twentieth-century theatre and cinema, and a bearer of a certain memory of archaic traditions transmitted beyond the ambient conformism and the diktats of the society of his time, the actor disseminates the culture from which he comes on a national level, to the point of permeating all Italian comedy, thus creating original extensions through irony and derision. Through the analysis of the representations of these two emblematic figures of Neapolitan folklore by the actor Totò, we will study the protest potential of pazzariello and the highlighting of the jettatore’s fatalism that annihilates entire generations.

Keywords

• folklore
• Totò
• Italian cinema
• Italian comedy
• actor