The series “Vita da Carlo” is one of Carlo Verdone’s most personal works (ten episodes on Amazon Prime Video). As far as we know about him, here’s Verdon undresses, smiling about his obsessions: hypocrisy that drives him to love a pharmacist, constantly changing mobile number, trying to break out of his usual characters and making an art film. (One screenwriter encouraged him for “Murnau-style”), the relationship with Aurelio De Laurentis (disguised as producer Ovid), the rudeness of self-irony (the scene with a drunk Haber accusing him of indifference) and irony (the talk show with Massimo Ferrero titled “viperetta” and the relationship with the Democratic Party). There’s even a cameo for Roberto D’Agostino.

Written with Nicola Guglianone, Minotti, Pasquale Plastino, Cerro Zica and Luca MastrogiovanniThe Vita da Carlo series also represents an attempt to change the crisis of cinema, to confront the problems of the pandemic by trying new ways, to engage with new modes of expression, and to confuse private life with fantasies. Mr. Carlo appears as a generous man and ready to take selfies on the street, to sign autographs, to comfort his best friend Max Tortura (who has been confused with Christian de Sica), while private life is always marked by the same tunes and obsessions. But everything takes a surreal turn when he gets the proposal to run for mayor of Rome: politics as a solution to personal problems. The writing of “Vita da Carlo” is very controlled: perhaps a little more courage was needed to break out of the bottlenecks of self-image, the elegy of Rome, and the reliance on sitcom rules. Moreover, greater brevity could have improved the tempo and avoided some lengthening. But more often he, Verdoni, with all his explosive artistic personality.