WORDS OF WISDOM IN MONACO
© Ezio Greggio
Presentation of the comedy ‘ Lockdown all ’ italiana ’, 2020
Ezio Greggio , President of the Monte- Carlo Film Festival of Comedy
HelloMonaco : How did you create the concept of Monte-Carlo Comedy Film Festival ?
Ezio Greggio : One day I shared with Mario Monicelli ( an Italian film director and screenwriter , one of the masters of the Commedia all ’ Italiana . He was nominated six times for an Oscar ) the idea of a festival , all dedicated to comedies . He had an enthusiastic reaction . At that time I was living in Monaco . I spoke with Prince Rainier III and he told me : ‘ You have to make me a promise , our festival has to become bigger than Cannes ’.
We think that through humour you show the reality and life of a country .
We started in the worst year it was possible — 2001 . That ’ s when a terrorist attack happened in the United States . But we decided to do it . We opened the first Monte-Carlo Comedy Film Festival with great names : Mario Monicelli , Alberto Sordi ( the most famous Italian comedian , singer , composer , director and screenwriter , Chevalier of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic ), Gina Lollobrigida ( an Italian actress , one of the highest-profile European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s , an international sex symbol ) and Claudia Cardinale ( an Italian actress ). We started the Festival as a kind of Italian edition and then the festival step by step became more international .
© Riccardo Ghilardi
Hello Monaco Spring 2021 / 41 www . hellomonaco . com