“Cortina Express” strangely works. I write strangely because the cinepanettone genre has essentially been considered dead for years, but what makes Christian De Sica’s return to the Dolomites, surrounded by a new cast and a new company, convincing, is the ability to go somewhere completely different . “Cortina Express” is a bittersweet film, very minimal, it does not aim to represent anything other than popular entertainment, but inside you can see a different and more realistic representation of Italy.

“Cortina Express” – the plot

Hard times for Lucio De Roberti (Christian De Sica), a young calf who is financially dependent on his nephew Andrea (Francesco Bruni). However, he has fallen in love with the daughter of the greedy Patrizia (Isabella Ferrari), a record producer who hopes to use her money to save herself. The scammer also tries to involve the unsuspecting singer Dino Doni (Lillo), who has always had a soft spot for her and dreams of becoming a big record producer, in the operation, so as to rebuild his relationship with his daughter Giorgia (Beatrice Modica). Their destinies will cross in Cortina, where the rich go to beach in the winter, but where there are also Russian mafiosi, trappers, unlikely waiters and a lot of poverty to deny. “Cortina Express” is directed by Eros Puglielli, who from the beginning moves to create a sort of total deconstruction of the Cinepanettone topoi, which, starting from Christmas 1983, had become a collective story, capable, at least according to many, to tell us about Italy that has changed.

From the reckless 80s that genre guided us into the Berlusconian 90s, of which every single cinepanettone has always been good or the cultural extension, almost a sort of cinematographic commercial that was renewed from year to year. But Berlusconi is no longer here, nor is that Italy. Therefore, there is no longer even the very rich cast of stars, starlets, showgirls and television comedians that once characterized these films. “Cortina Express” has many fewer characters but this at least allows us to delve into them a little better. The direction is sometimes too televised, not all the exchanges of gags and jokes seem to be written and characterized in the right way, but all this is compensated by the excellent performance of an adorably cynical Christian De Sica, by a Lillo in a state of grace. By clinging to these two characters, the profiteering bull and the starving man on the comeback, “Cortina Express” gives us a very different atmosphere from what anyone could expect from a cinepanettone or supposed one.

A new comedy for a different Italy

“Cortina Express” is a comic journey populated by starving people. Which in itself is no small feat. The only exception obviously is Lucio’s nephew, honestly one of the most embalmed and least successful characters seen in an Italian comedy recently. But otherwise, “Cortina Express” is a perfect representation of this Italy of our times: impoverished, melancholic, where wealth is faked rather than had, where no one, but really no one, is what it seems. To complete the picture, there is an unfiltered Paolo Calabresi, who becomes the totem of a rampant parody which from his Russian mafioso Alexei, then also extends to the other symbols of the cinepanettone itself, with the snow, the slopes, the luxury hotels, the beautiful women, nice cars and so on. There is none of this, everything has aged, impoverished, only the cunning remains, the art of making do, the difficult bonds between the different characters, often chased by time, by the fear of growing old or of being failures.

Unlike the classic Cinepanettoni, where they tried to sell the idea of ​​a generalized well-being that was actually purely superficial, in “Cortina Express” the rich are taken for a ride, the myth of luxury, the Cortina with the 900 € per sweater, all that myth of easy wealth, on which paradoxically De Sica and Boldi had built their kingdom. That said, “Cortina Expres”s is not a masterpiece of Italian comedy. At least a couple of characters are fundamentally poorly written, or just really old. The parody of the bone-sacral trapper is tasty only initially, then it becomes unsuspecting. The narrative tricks are recycled and often quite predictable, the whole thing is a little too cabaret-like. However, its ability to be a film different from what was expected, to combine lightness with a sad and real look at the conditions of this Italy, certainly makes it something more than a banal Cinepanettone, even if obviously it is something less than a great Italian comedy.

Rating: 6.5