Green Book: on the roads of the South (France 3): the true story behind the film

Nice surprise of 2018, Green Book: on the roads of the South is broadcast this Monday, December 19, 2022 at 9:10 p.m. on France 3. A moving and funny road trip inspired by a true story.

It enjoyed both critical and public success when it was released in theaters in 2018, attracting more than two million viewers to French theaters. At the global box office, Green Book: on the roads of the South even finished its race beyond 320 million dollars, before triumphing at the Oscars the following year. He thus won the statuette for best film, best original screenplay, while Mahershala Ali won the Oscar for best actor in a supporting role. Behind the camera, Peter Farrelly, who had apologized for his blundersaccustomed to crazy comedies (Mary at all cost, Dumb and Dumber), stages this road trip inspired by a poignant true story.

A misunderstood true story

The film is set in the year 1962. A rather gruff Italian-American bouncer from the Bronx, Tony Lip is hired by Dr. Don Shirley, a refined black pianist of international renown. The two men then set out on the roads of segregationist South America as part of a tour of the artist, where the first acts as a driver/protector of the second. Together, they get to know each other and gradually overcome their prejudices (and those of others). A moving and funny story that finds its origin in a true story and relatively unknown real facts. In the scenario of Green Book, we find a certain Nick Vallelonga. This name probably means nothing to you, but it is quite simply… the son of Tony “Lip” Vallelonga. Lip meaning “lip“in French, this character portrayed by Viggo Mortensen, who took great risks on his last filmgets his nickname from his ability to convince anyone of anything.

the Green Booksymbol of segregationist America

Marked by his childhood memories and the stories told by his father, Nick Vallelonga looks back on Tony Lip’s atypical life course. A child from the Bronx, he worked for more than ten years in a New York nightclub, the Copacabana, where he rubbed shoulders with both mafia godfathers and celebrities (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett…). He met Dr. Don Shirley in 1962 and embarked on this journey with him. In this segregationist America, Peter Farrelly’s film then lifts the veil on the Green Book. Published each year between 1936 and 1966, this travel guide (The Negro Motorist Green-Book) identified restaurants, hotels, and other businesses that accepted black customers. In addition to the obvious plea against racism, this drama carried by Mahershali Ali and Viggo Mortensen tells above all this extraordinary friendship between Tony Lip and Don Shirley. The two men will remain close for more than 50 years. Before both of them died in 2013, three months apart.