“It was the hand of God”: Paolo Sorrentino, Diego Armando Maradona and the most autobiographical film of a great career
“Thanks to my sources of inspiration: Federico Fellini, the Talking Heads, Martin Scorsese and Diego Armando Maradona”. With this historic speech of thanks Paolo Sorrentino in 2014 he surprised the audience of the Oscars, who applauded him for winning the statuette with “The great beauty” for best foreign film. We all hope that he will be able to pronounce similar words next March 27, when the Neapolitan director will return to represent Italy in the ceremony in Los Angeles with “It was the hand of God”, in which the influence of the lamented Maradona it is more evident than ever. And even before that, on January 9, Sorrentino’s film will be in the running as best foreign film at the 79th edition of the Golden Globes, demonstrating the consensus obtained by this very particular latest work.
From Pibe de Oro to Talking Heads: the director’s Pantheon
The tenth film of the director’s career is dedicated to the number 10 par excellence: that Maradona who, one year after his death, continues to represent a point of reference for the director. “A friend”, she defined him recently, even though she had never met him in person. The character of the “Pibe de Oro” was also present in “Youth” (2015), as well as “This must be the place” (2011) paid homage to the Talking Heads in a decidedly explicit way, with David Byrne involved in the project both as an actor in the role of himself and as the author of the soundtrack. “Ok, you know everything about my band: now, however, stop being a fan and let’s start arguing like real people”, the singer told him, on the occasion of their first meeting. With “E ‘è stato la mano di Dio”, Sorrentino however used his own myth to make the most autobiographical film of his artistic parable and the reference to the famous goal that Diego scored with his hand against England during the world ’86 it must not be misleading. It is not the umpteenth memory of the champion, one year after his death.
So Maradona saved my life
The most important Italian film of 2021 tells the tragedy that led Sorrentino to stay orphaned at the age of 16. The loss of a stove during the night caused his parents a carbon monoxide poisoning, from which the young Paolo was saved by a very fortunate circumstance: he was not with his parents, because otherwise he would have lost the Napoli game. He talked about it for the first time only in 2016, in a touching interview with Corriere della Sera: “Maradona saved my life. For two years I had been asking my father to be able to follow Napoli away, instead of spending the weekend in the mountains, in the family house in Roccaraso; but he always replied that I was too small. That time he finally gave me permission to leave: Empoli-Napoli. The doorman buzzed. I thought you were warning me that my friend had come to pick me up. Instead he warned me that an accident had happened. In these cases, they don’t tell you everything right away. They prepare you, a little at a time. Dad and Mom had died in their sleep. Because of a stove. Poisoned by carbon monoxide. My older sister, Daniela, who was already living together, heroically came to live for a year with my brother Marco and me. Then I was left alone, in the house on the Vomero. A time that I remember as a limbo. I was almost in a state of confusion ”.
Toni Servillo, Sorrentino’s alter-ego
Born in Naples on May 31, 1970, the youngest of three children, Sorrentino grew up with his mother Concetta called “Tina” (housewife) e Salvatore “Sasà” (Bank employee). As for all of his generation, he had a real point of reference in Maradona, not just sports. His love for football is also reflected in it “The extra man”, his debut film released just twenty years ago, in 2001. The title in fact takes up the famous theory of the coach Ezio Glerean, who at the time of the Citadel deployed a particular four-pointed module to conquer numerical superiority in some areas of the field. In the film, this thought is attributed to the former footballer Antonio Pisapia, who committed suicide after trying in vain to find a new job in the world of football. A story clearly inspired by the story of the former Roma captain Agostino Di Bartolomei, while the other Antonio “Tony” Pisapia of the film, a singer of the same name played by Toni Servillo, recalls Franco Califano. Servillo has always been Sorrentino’s fetish actor, who has been entrusted with the role of Giulio Andreotti in “Il Divo” (2008) and those of Silvio Berlusconi and Ennio Doris in “Loro” (2018). In between, he starred in all the other films by the fellow citizen director, with the sole exception of the aforementioned “Youth” e “This must be the place”, as well as the collective “Rio, eu te amo” (2014).
International collaborations and cameos
“The extra man”, made when he was 31, was the first flash of a passion for cinema that led Paolo Sorrentino to drop out of the Faculty of Economics and Commerce when he was only five exams to graduate. He can still be called “Doctor”, because in 2015 the Federico II University of Naples awarded him the honorary degree in Modern Philology and just then the director explained that he wanted to make a film about his city, but that he had not yet had the time. He finally made it.
In the rare times that he didn’t have Servillo next to him, he was still in more than prestigious companies. “This must be the place” has as its protagonist a Sean Penn who plays the aging singer Cheyenne, evidently inspired by Robert Smith of the Cure. At his side there is Eve Hewson, daughter of Bono of U2, another musical icon of the 80s new-wave scene. “Youth” hosts an exceptional trio made up of Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel (which also reads in “Rio”) e Rachel Weisz. In the TV series “The Young Pope” Sorrentino has instead focused on Jude Law, followed by the “New Pope” John Malkovich. In both seasons there was an extraordinary one Silvio Orlando, who played Cardinal Voiello (surname borrowed from one of the historical sponsors of Napoli), not surprisingly a fan of the Neapolitans. From Diane Keaton a Stefano Accorsi, passing through a sensual one Cecile from France and the cameos of Sharon Stone e Marylin Manson in the shoes of themselves, it can be said that Sorrentino enjoyed working citing his muses, just as he does today with Maradona. And, speaking of TV series, Sorrentino also played the part of himself, appearing in an episode of the third season of the cult “Boris”.
Private life and public triumphs
Paolo Sorrentino is married to the journalist Daniela D’Antonio, known when she wrote for “Repubblica” and he was part of the theater company United theaters: the respective offices at that time were in the same building in Naples. From their marriage two children were born, Anna and Carlo, and today the whole family lives in Rome, after having sold the family home in Naples where Paolo lived until he was 30 years old. And it is no coincidence that the Eternal City is the authentic co-star of “The great beauty”, like Servillo, Carlo Verdone e Sabrina Ferilli. In addition to the aforementioned Oscar, he has won four European Film Awards, a BAFTA Award, five David di Donatello awards and the beauty of eight Silver Ribbons. He moved from the big screen to writing in a very natural way: Tony Pisapia’s character returned in 2010 in his first novel, “They are all right”, albeit with his surname transformed into Pagoda. In 2012 followed by “Tony Pagoda and his friends”, in 2016 “The irrelevant aspects” and in 2017 “The weight of God. The gospel of Lenny Belardo”, inspired by “The Young Pope”.
Cross-references, from Lenny Belardo to Carlo Mazzacurati
Just “the young Pope” Lenny Belardo, Sorrentino explained to “Sette”, is the character who most resembles him, as an orphan, a word he never used willingly (“it seemed to me the emblem of bad luck”). “E ‘è stato la mano di Dio” is certainly his most autobiographical film (“As far as a film can be”, he specifies), but like all artists, the Neapolitan director also fished from his personal experience in various moments of his career. In the same interview with the weekly “Corriere della Sera” he explains the meaning of the constant presence of animals in his films: “Many tend to see symbols in it, the thing is less noble: infected by Umberto Contarello (screenwriter, ed), the relationship between man and animal makes me laugh “. Much more simply, they are childhood memories: “There was a veterinarian in the park, one of the few in Naples to treat exotic animals. One evening my brother and I coming home we see a peacock. For weeks the peacock appeared among the parked cars of the condominium, with the condominiums pretending to feed him. Here, since the peacock is in Amarcord, I was tempted to turn it into a gorilla. It will be my point of arrival. I put the gorilla on stage, and I retire ”. And even the famous Tony Pisapia was inspired by his father: “That was his way of being in the world, his love for music and for women, he considered himself a conqueror”. But why, then, did it take him so long to report the dramatic loss of his parents on the big screen? Sorrentino quotes his colleague Carlo Mazzacurati and his 2007 film “The right distance”: “Having turned fifty, I was able to tackle certain issues with measure, with a sentimental and not sentimentalist attitude. Previously I feared the show: look how beautiful I am in my suffering ”. In “It was the hand of God” Sorrentino explicitly mentions another of his great myths, Federico Fellini, which inspires in the protagonist Fabietto a resolution that will become prophetic: “I want to make cinema because I don’t like reality anymore. The reality is poor ”. And he says it to Antonio Capuano, another director widely honored by Sorrentino in the latter film. Thus, thanks to the hand of God, the career of the director began, holding the flag of Italian cinema high.