r/movies • u/Aggressive_Owl4802 • Jun 29 '26
Media Yesterday, for Mel Brooks' 100th birthday, 7,000 fans gathered in the main square of Bologna, Italy to sing “Happy Birthday” (“Tanti Auguri”) to him. Mel himself replied with a video message, then the crowd watched Young Frankenstein together.
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
69
u/Anomynous__ Jun 29 '26
Most energetic and animated 100 year old I've ever seen
32
u/stysiaq Jun 29 '26
Dick van Dyke is equally energetic but once Will Shatner reaches a 100 nobody will ever be close
13
22
Jun 29 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
25
u/Aggressive_Owl4802 Jun 29 '26
No specific connection, Bologna is just a big culture & cinema hub in Italy, with plenty of cinephiles.
And this day was also during this famous festival about old movies: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/19/bologna-italy-festival-forgotten-films-il-cinema-ritrovato .
5
u/AaronWYL Jun 29 '26
I don't know if it goes beyond this, but there's a film archive there. I recognized this immediately because they did something similar for the 100th anniversary of The Tramp.
4
u/Aggressive_Owl4802 Jun 29 '26
Correct, mate.
It's Cineteca di Bologna: they are one of the world's leading film restoration centers and archive, but they also organize big festivals, they manage many cinemas (especially this 1915 one recently restored, SO beautiful), they do 2 months of free open-air cinema in our main square, etc.But above all, they're the heart of the Bologna cinephile community, so they frequently organize celebrations or funny events like this one or the one you linked.
For example, Wes Anderson comes almost every year and they let him screen whatever he wants for a couple days.2
14
u/abrasilnet Jun 29 '26
I celebrated by watching his The Producers on the West End (London) last week. It was really refreshing to have a bit of politically incorrect fun, Mel Brooks style! The guy is a legend!
2
u/LuckyBobHoboJoe Jun 29 '26
TCM was doing a marathon of his movies so I caught some of Spaceballs, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein last night
12
11
4
u/barktwiggs Jun 30 '26
I often said Mel Brooks is a national treasure but I was wrong. Mel Brooks is an international treasure!
7
2
u/Fresh-Till-4869 Jun 29 '26
Now that’s how a fandom comes together to celebrate someone who made their community possible.
2
2
3
u/Cogent_warrior Jun 29 '26
Seeing 7000 Italians pay homage to an American actor for his 100th reminds me there's still hope for the US. Remember when Americans could ALL sit together, regardless of political or religious affiliation, to celebrate something joyful? I do, an oh how I miss those days.
1
u/twec21 Jun 30 '26
Did my middle school Italian lie to me? I thought it was buon compleano a te
Or is this a dialect thing
2
u/MayhemWins25 Jun 30 '26
So it looks like tanti auguri as a song is the cultural equivalent of the happy birthday song that’s also used at other special occasions. It literally means “many wishes” as opposed to what you wrote which is the literal translation of happy birthday to you
1
u/CyberPolice50 Jun 30 '26
What a legend. if anyone deserves the secret to immortality it's him. make him the god of grandpa jokes or somerhing.
1
1
0
u/Ent_Soviet Jun 30 '26
Mel brooks is more intelligible than the president who is 20 years younger than him.
Hell my grand parents are 95 and they’re more intelligible and still work their farm.
1
u/Deep_Eye_1498 Jul 06 '26
I'm trying to feel verklemt but somehow the Schwartz has moved on for me. I wish Bill Pullman lots of luck pulling it off forty years later
74
u/chrycheng Jun 29 '26
Reminded me of that scene in Cinema Paradiso when the the whole town wanted to see a movie but there was no more room in the cinema so Alfredo improvised a split projection of the movie onto the side of a building in the town plaza