Andrea Camilleri, “that rock star of his grandfather”

This entry is posted on number 18 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until April 29, 2025

A wise friend, with whom you can talk about everything, from work issues to sentimental ones “. It is not usual to define a grandfather of ninety years and passes. But this is in this way that Arianna Mortelliti talks about Andrea Camilleriwriter, director, playwright, intellectual, who died in 2019 and of which the celebrations for the centenary of birth have just begun in 2026 to end in 2026. Two years of celebrations are only dedicated to the giants. And Camilleri this was, a kind of compass that the whole world continues to use to decipher not only Sicily, but Italy and the human soul.

To tell this grandfather out of the ordinary – over one hundred books, translated into more than thirty languages ​​and ten million copies sold – meeting two of his grandchildren, Arianna and Alessandra Mortelliti. They are daughters of Andreina, the firstborn of the writer and Rosetta dello Siesto (afterwards Elisabetta and Mariolina arrived), and the director Rocco Mortelliti. Alessandra, 44 years old, actress and director, opened the centenary at the Piccinni Theater in Bari with a show taken from A Saturday, with friends (will arrive at the India Theater in Rome in January 2026). Arianna, 38, teaches sciences in superiors, wrote two novels, That time my wife cooked the peppers And That eggplant color handkerchief And she is the director of the Andrea Camilleri new storytellers where each section is divided into «Chiù Picca di Sissanta” And “Chiù assà di sissanta», That is, the under and the over 60, because Camilleri has achieved overwhelming success at that age, thanks to the novels of Commissioner Montalbano.

When did you notice that your grandfather was a celebrity?
Arianna: «I in Porto Empedocle, where we went to the summer of grandfather in the summer. I will have been 13 years old, one morning I went down and I saw a very long line of people on the main course that ended in the bar that grandfather called his office, all people who came from all over Sicily to have a book signed or have a chat. I also remember when our mother received a phone call from a woman who had just given birth and wanted to bring the child to make him touch from Camilleri ».
Alessandra: «They treated him as Lenny Kravitz was, people who made their arm, women in love with Montalbano and him too. But that success did not change our family, also for the education that gave us, austere but in a healthy way ».

What have you inherited from him?
Arianna: «I started writing books! In his last year, I helped him in the drafting of theSelf -defense of Cainthe first post -posthumous work. That close experience with a person who was not only my grandfather, but also one of the best writers in the world, was useful to me to understand how to write a book. It sent me the
ability to put me in the shoes of others, even the “bad guys”. And then the seriousness: until the end, every morning he got up, dressed out of all, he had breakfast, worked until lunchtime, lunch, a nap and then again at work ».

He had ever been able to write to her before?
Arianna: «I have always been a merged reader. As a child I read the series Small chills And I tried to write similar stories. Then I graduated in Biology, but during the pandemic I started thinking again ».

Among other things, his first book was somehow inspired by his grandfather.
Arianna: «For the whole month in which grandfather remained in a coma, we went to find him every day in the hospital, and having a scientific mind he annoys me that not even the doctors could know what he perceived the outside world. Thus, I put one of his teachings into practice, that is, using fantasy to answer questions to which rationality could never come. My book is written from the point of view of Arturo, a 95 -year -old who slips into the coma ».

What did he inherit from him?
Alessandra: “The theater and cinema have entered me since I was in bands, so it never touched me the thought of being able to do anything else”.

At the beginning her grandfather did not agree that she became an actress.
Alessandra: «When I decided, I was an extremely introverted and shy person. Probably he, who knew the actors and difficulties of the trade well, told me in a protective way, like a second father. Afterwards he became my first supporter. It was he who told me not to neglect the direction of the direction, and in this case too he proved to be forward -looking ».

Do you still follow your advice?
Alessandra: «When I was making my first movie, Famous (2019), who talks about a boy with a fluid genre, grandfather has always invited me to move forward in a stubborn way on my strongest beliefs, without letting me conditioned by politically correct, common sense, compromise ».

For the centenary he takes one of his books on stage.
Alessandra: «One of my favorites, A Saturday, with friendspart of a less known vein than its production, more dark, which speaks of the “evil” that are such because they were themselves victims. I play Anna, a typical Camillerian woman ».

In what sense?
Alessandra: «Grandfather has always been incredibly skilled in telling the female figures. He had a female brain. Even in the various books on Montalbano we find some femme fatalewomen aware of their complex and enigmatic sexual component ».

Did women understand why your family has always been a kind of gyge?
Arianna: «For sure. At one point the grandparents lived with their respective mothers, then they had three daughters, and then we. To get to a male they had to wait for my aunt Mariolina to make one, Francesco. However, he already started from a weakness for women, he always said that the imagination had taken him from his grandmother. “

Alessandra has two children, Matilda and Andrea. In Matilda
Camilleri dedicated a moving book, Now tell me about you (2018). What was great?
Alessandra: «We did everything possible for grandfather to enjoy children. Even today they often name him, even in an ironic way. Him reminiscent of affection and great physicality, something that moves me ».

Unlike most of the elderly, it has remained an optimist.
Alessandra: «I think it was decisive the fact that she did the professor, one of those who did not like to impose himself and knew how to listen. He loved young people, he always declared himself a sort of vampire that fed his youth. It was also a great curious one. Until he became blind he always read a lot, it was he who made me know the cinema of Tarantino and, while loving jazz, if he felt a nice modern piece said “look, this is not bad” “.
Arianna: “If you think that our grandmother 97 years ago research with iPad, perhaps he was not the youngest between the two!”.

Your grandparents have been over 60 years together. How did they do?
Arianna: “Rosetta’s patience!”.
Alessandra: «I confirm! Certainly there will have been ups and downs, but there were those moments when you saw them cracking from laughter for the same thing and you understand that to keep a couple together that is enough. I think he also helped a good dose of autonomy. Rosetta never stayed to be a woman at home, she had her commitments, friends, gymnastics, then in the evening they met and told each other. They were two strong people, each with their own interests, he a seaside man, she loved the mountain, but they respected. It is one of the many things that I would love my children to inherit from them ».