Tuesday 13 February 2018

INSPECTOR MONTALBANO: LA GIOSTRA DEGLI SCAMBI (RAI 1)

[Spoiler-free review] Il commissario Montalbano, the Italian detective drama launched in 1999 and starring Luca Zingaretti as the character created by author Andrea Camilleri, returned yesterday on RAI 1 for a new series (the 12th) of two 120-minute episodes.

La giostra degli scambi was adapted by Francesco Bruni, Andrea Camilleri, Salvatore De Mola and Leonardo Marini with Valentina Alferj, from the namesake novel first published in 2015 by Sellerio (Palermo). It's a weird day for Salvo Montalbano, who's almost arrested by the carabinieri while trying to separate two men in a brawl on the beach in front of his house. Then, he receives a phone call from his housekeeper Adelina. She knocked out a man named Alfredo Virduzzo with a frying pan because she mistook him for a thief.

Salvo, his deputy Mimi Augello (Cesare Bocci) and Inspector Giuseppe Fazio (Peppino Mazzotta) are confronted with a series of bizarre abductions of women and a suspicious fire in a shop which belongs to Marcello Di Carlo. Introduced as usual by Andrea Camilleri himself, the excellent La giostra degli scambi is the 31st episode of Il commissario Montalbano. Also starring Sebastiano Lo Monaco (Virduzzo), Angelo Russo (Catarella), Roberto Nobile  (Zito), Desirée Noferini (Silvana Romano), Raffaele Esposito (Marcello Di Carlo), Chiara Muscato (Luigia Maugeri), Ubaldo Lo Presti (Jacono), Ketty Governali (Adelina), Daniela Giordano, Noemi Giambirtone, Salvatore La Mantia, Bruno Di Chiara, Giovanni Argante and Salvatore Gioncardi.

With the participation of Fabrizio Bentivoglio  (Giorgio Bonfiglio) and Sonia Bergamasco (Livia). Giovanni Guardiano returns as forensic specialist Jacomuzzi and Davide Lo Verde is back as Agent Galluzzo. Marcello Perracchio, who played pathologist Dr. Pasquano, died in July 2017. Inspector Montalbano is produced by Palomar and RAI Fiction. Produced by Carlo Degli Esposti, founder and president of Palomar, and Nora Barbieri with Max Gusberti. Marco Camilli is the producer for Palomar and Erica Pellegrini produces for RAI. Gianfranco Barbagallo exec produces. Music composed and conducted by Franco Piersanti. Songs by Olivia Sellerio.  

Cinematography by Franco Lecca. Distributed by Rai Com. Il commissario Montalbano is aired in the UK by BBC Four as Inspector Montalbano and in France on France 3 as Commissaire Montalbano. Directed (with perfection) by Montalbano regular helmer Alberto Sironi. Montalbano is more than an institution in Italy and each episode is an event. Angelo Russo, who plays the improbable Catarella, even appeared in Soliti Ignoti – Il Ritorno, a game show adapted from a format called Identity and which preceded the transmission of La giostra degli scambi. The episode reached an historic high with 11.386.000 viewers (45.1%).

http://www.carlopalomar.it/ (The blog of Carlo Degli Esposti)
http://www.vigata.org/ 

Last year's episodes:

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