'Once Upon a Time', the book by Lello Arena

It comes out for Rizzoli "Once upon a time“, the book in which Lello Arena, tells his story of his relationship with Massimo Troisi. A story with a legendary aura: from the beginning, on the streets of San Giorgio a Cremano, to the great success in the theatre and on TV with The Grimace, in the 70s, up to the legendary films like I start again from three, No thanks coffee makes me nervous, Sorry for the delay.

A river of anecdotes, lots of laughter, since the first magical meeting in 1973 for a theatrical performance at the parish of Sant'Anna and also the sad shadows of a relationship that began when they were minors and cemented by years and years of living together in Rome and that in the end was irremediably lost.

"I'm 67 – says Lello Arena that Troisi called Rafe' – I imagine myself as a 90-year-old, now I'm at the beginning so I thought it was better to do it now, but it was very hard, I did research for two years, tracked down documents and photographs. It was a necessary act, for clarity. I'm telling what I remember, we would need another one done by Enzo Decaro for example. Troisi is a gigantic universe, a unique person, extraordinary in the literal sense of the word, uncompromising to unimaginable levels. When we lived together in Rome it was good for everyone that he got up at 14 pm because a whole day with his inventions, ideas, leaps forward would have been impossible to manage".

An exemplary episode concerns aliens: Troisi at the window waiting to see them to become famous 'without doing anything', which was a bit of his life mantra. 

In the book Arena, who with Decaro is preparing the permanent exhibition at the Bread, the Palazzo delle Arti in Naples, faces its pain, at all costs.

"It was the primary choice otherwise I wouldn't have said yes to the book, at the moment I accepted I couldn't keep the secrets to myself, I had to tell the truth, even if I didn't write for that and all the regrets remain".

"I have never understood, for example, how and why he was not curious to meet my first daughter, Valentina.“, writes Arena who tells with “heart in hand” when their paths began to divide, almost naturally with their respective affirmations from a professional point of view but incomprehensibly, almost as a mutual challenge to see who cared more about the game, from a human point of view.

The fact is that what divided them was The ways of the lord are finished: Arena recounts the preparation of the character of Orlando, meticulous, complex, dialectical like everything they do, and the shock of the phone call from Troisi who had changed his mind and announced that he had decided to give the role to Massimo Bonetti and was proposing a secondary character.

"I tell him no and at this point something terrifying is set in motion. The fact is that this group of excellent professionals, this cream of the crop of geniuses of Italian cinema, sends a communication to Massimo in which he is warned that my absence from the film could create serious problems. Even for the film itself. Massimo, as I would have done, reacts very badly but makes only one mistake. He thinks that I am part of this pressure group, while the truth is that I know absolutely nothing about it. – writes Arena -.

"In the following days, I tried three times to call Massimo and, receiving no answer, I left him messages asking to speak to him. Without success.".

End of story, it was 1987. Seven long years without either of them making any move to get closer in a game of silences that was “terrible, useless, tragic” says Arena, who cannot erase an incredible, unique story.

A great deal of affection shines through in the book's 200+ pages: “when he died I swore to myself to do whatever I could to remember him, to be a witness: I was lucky enough to cross his light and I am eternally grateful for it".