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For Francesco Nuti's IMDB credits, click on this logo:

Here's a clip from 'Tutto colpo di paradiso'

For my list of Francesco Nuti's DVDs at Amazon.com, click on this logo:

For my list of Francesco Nuti's VHS tapes at Amazon.com, click on this logo:

A scene from 'Caruso Paskoski' with Francesco Nuti and Novello Novelli

For Novello Novelli's IMDB credits, click on this logo:

For my list of Novello Novelli's DVDs at Amazon.com, click on this logo:

For my list of Novello Novelli's VHS tapes at Amazon.com, click on this logo:

Here's another clip from 'Tuto colpo di pardiso', this one featuring the beautiful Ornella Muti.  This one is for Ornella fans...

Francesco Nuti, like all artists, has suffered ups and downs, but he also suffered a serious fall in 2006, and went into a coma.  He eventually came out of the coma, but had suffered brain damage.  He is recovering slowly, and his doctors believe he will eventually recover his ability to speak and walk.

Francesco Nuti's Official Website

Franceso is also a singer-songwriter, recorded also by the great Mina.  Here is one of his songs, 'Guilia'

And, lastly, here's a clip of the wonderful Ronald Colman, who left this world too soon, from his most famous film role in 'A Tale of Two Cities'.

Ronald Colman

Also see my pages:

Francesco Nuti is a famous Italian comic film auteur.  (Click Mr. Nuti's image to the right, to see his filmography.)  When I was living in Florence, he and his fellow actor and friend, Novello Novelli, also known as Il Toscano, decided to take advantage of the empty evening streets on Saint Stephen's Day, the day after Christmas, to take a walk through the decorated center of Florence.  

They were probably hoping to go unrecognized by fans since most Italians are home with family on that day.  Little did they know that walking next to them was a foreign fan, me, and just around the corner were my celebrity obsessed Italian friends.  The scene was set for a life-threatening disaster.

I was walking, or taking a passeggiata, with a young girl, the daughter of the roasted-chestnut seller, the evocative smell of which I will forever associate with Christmas in Italy.  I mentioned to the little girl that Francesco Nuti and his friend were walking next to us, but she was unimpressed, too young to be affected by either man's Tuscan charms.  

When we rounded the corner and entered the main square of Florence, I saw my friends.  I mentioned in passing that we had just seen Francesco Nuti walking with Il Toscano, and I pointed them out as they headed for the main shopping street off the square.  

Before I could say another word, my friends had practically trampled the little girl on their way to mob the unsuspecting Francesco Nuti and Il Toscano.  I immediately realized my mistake and grabbed the girl's hand and raced after them.  

I explained to her that we had to stop them from bothering the poor men and from creating a scene.  She started asking, and didn't stop asking for the next ten minutes, "Ma, chi e'?", "Who is he?".  

When we reached the growing mob, they heard her repeated question and the answers started flowing in every possible Italian dialect, listing every movie the man had ever made.  This, of course, attracted an even bigger mob of people.  

It was a disaster.  

There were people listing the man's filmography and pushing to see him.  There were fans pushing to get a look at the man.  There were the people pushing to get a look to see if they could recognize who everyone was talking about.  There were the non-Italian speakers pushing because they thought there was something great to see.  And there was me, trying to protect the little girl from being trampled to death, all the while yelling at my insane friends to "Lasciateli stare!", "Leave them alone!"

Suddenly the crowd broke apart and drifted away.  I braced myself for the sight of Francesco Nuti and Il Toscano dead on the paving stones, flattened like cartoon characters after getting run over by a steam roller.  Instead, they were nowhere to be seen.  They had managed a miraculous escape!  (To a private snooker club located in a basement near the famous Cafe Rivoire, I suspect.)

I was so relieved.  The guilt would have followed me to my grave if they had been hurt.  I have never again pointed out a celebrity, ever, to anyone, no matter how sane the person I was with appeared to be.  And I would advise the same to everyone else.  

I truly believe that fame is a curse, the only possible benefit being that it usually provides financial security.  Some famous men may disagree, sure that their sudden irresistibility to women is benefit enough to overcome the negatives.  But sadly, their financial security alone would attract an abundance of partners, without the hassles of fame.

If you don't agree with me, then take the word of Ronald Colman, the actor, in my humble opinion, with perhaps the most beautiful voice and presence in film history: 

"Fame has robbed me of my freedom and shut me up in prison, and because the prison walls are gilded, and the key that locks me in is gold, does not make it any more tolerable."

If you are a fan of Ronald Colman, you'll love the beautiful, reverential website dedicated to this lovely man. As the website says, you can "experience the polish, the charm, the beneficent presence that was Ronald Colman".

Ronald Colman Website

As they explain in the site, Mr. Colman's first starring role in a film was as an Italian Captain Giovanni Severi in the silent film "The White Sister", opposite Lillian Gish, directed by Henry King. The film, was shot on location in Italy and Algeria. As the fan-site says, "it was a romantic tear-jerker that was wildly popular.  Colman was quickly proclaimed a new screen star."

(A very big "Grazie mille!" to site visitor Albert Annunziata for sharing this story, and the Colman website, with me. CM)