The Hand of God refers to the nickname of the fans of the legendary football player Diego Maradona. “The Hand of God” is now Paolo Sorrentino’s latest award-winning Italian film.
An extensive autobiographical account acknowledging Divine Intervention, “Hand” follows Sorrentino’s teenage altar, Fabietto Schisa (Filippo Scotti).
In Naples, Maradona’s football achievements are the center of his world until a life-changing incident marks his coming of age.
At the age of 50 last year, when he captured “Hand”, was Sorrentino worried that he might be too young to think about his 15-year-old self?
“I thought it was the right age because 50 is a very important gap. “A significant part of your career is over and my future allows me to do only the necessary things,” Sorrentino said in Italian through an interpreter during an interview with Zoom.
Fabietto shares his bedroom with his brother, an aspiring actor auditioning for a Federico Fellini film. “This part of the film is absolutely true,” Sorrentino said.
Fellini’s autobiographical “Amarcord” is one of the most beloved and well-known films of the late director. “Fellini was very important to me in general, less so in this film. “Amarcord” was an autobiography with an important element of the invention. Where in my case it is a very true autobiography. It was a big influence when I did “The Great Beauty” but for that? Not so much.”
Sorrentino won the Oscar, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA for “Great Beauty”. Now he is back in the awards race.
“Because I have already gone through this,” he thought, “I realized that the result of a prize race was something that requires convergence of many factors that can not be regulated. “All you can do is do your job and see what happens.”
Sorrentino is not worried about what will happen next. “I know myself after 10 movies. I knew from the beginning that I had to wait for the project to come to my mind. “Now, I’m waiting for the project to be done.”
With “The Young Pope” and “The New Pope”, successful English-language works, he does not see the works that way.
“I have no preferences. “Stories come in different sizes,” he said. “Some stories are more suitable for television and others, for their size, are better for movies. It depends on the story I decide which format works best.
“As for shooting in English, at some point a story takes over and prevails. This could be an Italian story or it could be a story that would work well in English. For me, what really matters is, do you determine the right story? “
“The Hand of God” airs on Netflix from December 15.
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