Directed by Leonardo Valenti, Te L(e)o Comando (a.ka. TV Man) is a resurrected zero-budget short from 1997 that blends everyday anxiety with a bizarre premise. What begins as preparing for a first date quickly spirals into something far stranger.
Marco (Marco Marianucci) is at a pay phone, confirming his date with the beautiful Azzurra is still on. Floating on Cloud Nine, he dances up a flight of stairs and enters his apartment to get ready for the date. To his horror, he realizes that he’s dressed like a dork and needs to find a better outfit. As Marco panics, a man calls out to him from the television. He brushes it off as a silly television show and instead calls his friend Michi (Silvia Niri), begging for help getting dressed. Michi tells him to take the pills he used during his earlier freak-outs. Searching frantically for the pills, the man on the TV cuts in and starts mocking him. He introduces himself as TV Man (Fabio Fieri), insists he is a real person, and claims to be the one who makes the television work.
“…a man calls out to him from the television.”
TV Man then makes a request: he wants out of the television and needs Marco’s help to escape. If Marco helps him, TV Man promises to leave him alone. Marco agrees, and TV Man instructs him to concentrate really hard and believe that he is releasing TV Man. Instead, they switch places and, keeping his promise, TV Man plans to go on the date with Azzurra.
Leonardo Valenti drew inspiration for Te L(e)o Comando (TV Man) from early ’90s indie cinema, such as Clerks, Slacker, and El Mariachi…but with absolutely no money. Made in 1997, you can almost imagine the two VCRs connected as a makeshift editing bay. The film is an ultra-budget, DIY indie film set in the filmmaker’s apartment, and it plays around with a few camera tricks to create it all.
In the end, I don’t care if it’s a video, a film, or a puppet show; a good story is a good story. Te L(e)o Comando (TV Man) tells a simple story, and Marco Marianucci nails the role of our hopeless romantic, easily building sympathy for the protagonist as he puts him in a tight spot and forces him to figure out a way out. Better yet…it’s fun. That’s all we can ask.
"…a good story is a good story."
