Riderà! (Cuore matto)

This is a shining example of "musicarello", a very successful film genre especially in the 60s in which a love story was built as a pretext for a series of performances by a successful singer at that time ,

Riderà (Cuore matto) , directed in 1967 by Bruno Corbucci, who both as director and screenwriter has crossed all genres, especially on the comedy side (from spying with Lando Buzzanca to the series of "teams" and "crimes" with Tomas Milian) and who has directed a handful of musicians - This crazy, crazy world of song , 1965 with Gianni Morandi, Dino, Lucio Dalla, Petula Clark and many others, Sailors on deck , 1967 with Little Tony, Zum zum zum, 1968 always with Little Tony, Lisa with blue eyes , 1969 with Mario Tessuto, Zum, zum, zum n ° 2 , 1969, with Little Tony, Orietta Berti and Pippo Baudo) is built on the 1966 success of Little Tony, born from Cantagiro and more than a million copies sold, alongside the title of the single (written by Totò Savio, later with Squallor) published in the year of the film's release, first place in the charts and cornerstone of the singer's discography of Tivoli.

If Little Tony, the true Italian hero of rock and roll until the last day, is the protagonist here with his songs, the comedy rests on the shoulders of the trio composed of Ferruccio Amendola, Lucio Flauto and Oreste Lionello (with the touch of class by Raimondo Vianello as a somewhat stupid investigator), aspiring artists (actor, painter and poet), penniless roommates of Little in a miserable apartment with an impregnable view of the Eternal City.

Antonio - Little Tony - on the other hand, is an aspiring car racer mechanic who, to scrape together some money, performs in the restaurants of the city. And it is in the role of singer that he will find his fortune thanks to producer JK Deline, who will prefer him to Elvis Presley for a film to be shot in the United States.

It will be by attending the cinema environment that the relationship between him and his girlfriend Giulia (recipient of the song “My love with Giulia”, side B of the single of “Riderà”) will be put to the test. It goes without saying that everything will find an ideal solution and the film will end with Little Tony leaving for America, providing the starting point for a sequel - Cuore matto ... matto da tie, shot the following year by Amendola alone but again written with Corbucci.

The film, which like all those belonging to the genre, finds its strength in the pre-videoclip musical performances, and in the comic curtains that aim to strengthen the rhythm thanks to character actors who raise the acting quality - not excellent, it must be said - of the lead singers, presents an overflowing scene in which the shabby quartet is seen engaged on the set of a western directed by Sergio Corbucci, in which the director of photography also appears Riccardo Pallottini.