Massimo Giletti returns to Rai. And this at the top of an evening event that is a long homage to 70 years of television history: The TV is 70to broadcast Wednesday, February 28th, on Rai 1. A journey through an enormous variety of familiar faces, guests, stories, programs and genres that become ideas for telling the history and development of Italy, in a kind of mirror game between yesterday and today. Many guest artists will be present during this long evening of celebration (which will last from the first to the third evening, like an episode of Sanremo). At the center of this story are two “founding fathers” of Italian television: Pippo Baudo and Renzo Arbore.
But the event within the event of this particular evening is that at the head of a Rai broadcast, the audience will find Massimo Giletti, fresh from the abrupt end of his professional relationship at 7. And here's what the journalist said about the emotions over his back to mother Rai, about future projects and about her idea of television and about the silence of a colleague, which really didn't go down well with him.
Massimo Giletti, what do you think about returning to Rai?
The greatest feeling is meeting the people I grew up with and who welcomed me with great affection. Since I had my office where Rai could be seen, I saw the horse every morning. It was strange to be there, surveying the company where I was born and where I was no longer. When you return, you have the hope of finding a place to land and the pleasure of finding familiar places again. A feeling of coming home.
What will we see on the long evening of La tv fa 70?
First of all, the result of a great job. I took on this challenge because I believe Rai can create great products internally. I believe we need to rediscover the pride in work in Rai. We hosts are the front men, but without all the other characters who contribute to the success of a program, we get nowhere. Once upon a time, when Rai arrived it stopped a country, now many things have changed. But this great event that we have organized on television for 70 years shows that Rai can do great things with its internal resources.
I believe that there are two categories of people who make television: those who participate in it and those who invent television. I feel like a television craftsman, I was born with Minoli, who invented Un Posto al Sole for example, next to Mixer, Baudo and Arbore are two Maradonas in this sense, a comparison with them is not possible. This evening goes something like this: It's about craftsmen and innovators. Of course it was impossible to summarize 70 years and take everything into account, but above all we wanted to be contemporary. The many characters who come to visit us will also be dynamic and not just narrative. The spirit is this. I thought about how I already remember headlines like “General interest television is dead” in 1992 when I started, and yet here we are still. But we have to invest in new ideas. Sanremo won because it brought contemporary reality to television. Today's weather needs to be shown on today's television. For this reason, at our evening event you will not see a show based on the showcases, which are a jewel of Rai. We used them, but if you go to prime time you have to do something different.
But can we know why he didn't invite Mara Venier?
Because unfortunately it was like that impossible to bring everyoneboth she and Milly Carlucci will be present via video, I would have liked Santoro and Minoli to also host, but on an evening more focused on the show we struggled to give them the right space.
Who or what did you feel particularly sorry for being eliminated from this show?
I'm a little' disappointed because Fabio Fazio won't be there. I texted him He never answered me, which disappointed me a bit as a person, but I can also understand that Fabio and I faced each other at the forefront for a long time, and there were also tensions, but I think that Fazio is a very important figure in the history of television, it is a lack that leaves me behind bitter and at a loss, sorry. But I look at everything else we've done.
You'll talk about television from the past to the present, but what don't you like about television today?
It is a Television is too much of a slave to the audience, The biggest limit today is this. We should have more courage and don't just turn to a public mattress to hand out everything to. There used to be an opportunity to experiment and give the program a break-in period, but today there is no time because we have to win immediately. I think we need to take responsibility to explore new things and public television in particular should do this.
Are there any more projects in sight at Rai after this evening? You speak almost like an executive. Have you ever thought about a corporate role?
At the moment Rai has taken me with him on a trial basis, so nothing clear is in sight yet. I believe that we have to learn to do our job every day, but that does not mean that those who make television cannot make a contribution, an idea, to the company. Today my desire is to make the product entrusted to me good. I hope that politicians and Rai understand that it is important to create working groups that only have the content produced as a reference. I always just responded to my conscience and the network director. Now they are in court, so we will see what it will be like in May, June. I have some projects that I hope will be realized in these two months, since my programs are more complex, we do not do formats and therefore require time and a lot of organizational effort.
Is this return a revenge for you?
My mood is not one of revenge, The Giletti from a few years ago would have answered this question more brutally. I think I didn't make any mistakes and then I think that even with negative experiences you have to find something to improve: in this case this experience taught me to be calmer in my feelings. If you remember, during the first press conference at la7, I was so tense that I even shed tears because it was painful to leave Rai like that. Even though I went to a large network that invested heavily in information, so an excellent situation, the pain remained within me. Today is different because I am a different man. Today it is important for me to have a balance. As they completed an important program, my heart felt especially for the 30 employees who were thrown out of their jobs overnight. However, today we are experiencing a different adventure. I can tell you that I walked on stage alone the other night and felt like I was reclaiming the place where I was born. I am calm.
Your favorite show from 70 years of television (not including the mixer we take for granted)?
Renzo Arbore He has made some crazy products like Especially for you, for me this is the first television talk show, we are in 1968, with the big names in the music industry talking to the children and having them respond freely to them. Caterina Caselli ran away crying at the end of a recording. After two years this program was abolished because it is always complicated to do something anti-liturgical. Also The news spreads It was stunning: it turned off-air into on-air, and from that moment on it became harder to make television.
Apparently someone in the company raised an eyebrow when it was decided to entrust you with this program. How do you react to that?
In some ways it was to be expected that whoever leaves and then comes back pays the price, but I am not the last to arrive: there I spent 27 years at Rai before I was “kindly shown the door.”. It's normal for someone to raise an eyebrow, but it's also true that relying on someone perceived as a newcomer for an evening can lead to interesting results.
They said that Bruno Vespa may complain about the long duration of the show as it airs later than usual. Do you see a derby with Vespa in the future?
No, we are far away. Furthermore, I am anti-liturgical, so it is difficult for an anti-liturgical person to get a program that has to be liturgical in nature, like Vespa's. I believe there is room for everyone here.
But do you plan to bring the arena back to Rai?
But here we still have to talk about what will be, I understand the curiosity, but I repeat that at the moment they are “in court”. The L'Arena brand was born in Rai, but I believe that everything has its moments and its era. Now I really don't know what I'm going to do in three or four months, I just came back, let's see, what has to happen will happen, It is important that there are more offers. I don't know where and I don't know what, but I'll do something.
Whoever comes back has to pay customs, he said, how do you pay that?
Let's say I understand that time contributes to understanding on both sides. I'm now coming out of a closure that wasn't easy, there's also an ongoing legal situation. When Enrico Mentana suggested to me to clarify things on his show, I said no, because there are things that cannot be clarified on television, because in such contexts you can only tell the truth. I confided in the judges to come to a solution to the truth. So time is always necessary, and management also needs time to process a certain situation.
Do you have any ideas for plans for the future? Would you like to go back and investigate?
What we are doing is an extraordinary sung Mass, I also have another very important one in mind, it would be unique in the world, but let's see, I haven't spoken to the leaders about it yet. So I also do this television. When I talk about anti-liturgical television, I assume that I have respect for the liturgy. That just means that in my idea of television you have to have great courage without thinking about it. There is only one truth. I have my own idea of television, not necessarily destructive. It's a duty not to turn my head the other way. If I can do it again, I will do it, but never in an ideological way, because it's not me I've never been so ideological that I'm still here.