Movie: Maradona, the Hand of God - Maradona, la mano di Dio (Marco Risi, 2007)
When the Maradona's first leave the poverty of Villa Fiorito, Diego's mom responds angrily to a shopkeeper who sells her fruit twice as expensive as she is used to. It's a scene that sets up Diego's meeting with the love of his life Claudia, but also works on its own as a sensitive and sympathetic depiction of the honor and dignity of people who escape poverty. Diego's dad gets a similar scene a bit later when his son asks him to not work anymore - Maradona's football skills will support the family, his father can rest. The combination of pride and hurt on Roly Serrano's face in response to that request may be the best acting moment in the film. What makes it even more effective is that Serrano only shows his true emotions once his son has left the scene. It's evident that director Marco Risi is very much in his comfort zone unobstrusively filming subtle, authentically humane moments in the ordinary lives of ordinary citizens. That's a pretty great skill to have when you are not making a movie about Diego Maradona.
When you are making a movie about Diego Maradona, you need a touch of Brian De Palma or Oliver Stone. Risi does understand that, but he never goes as far as he should and his heart isn't really in it, with the exception of a couple of scnees, for example the first time Maradona makes love to Claudia. Rosi cuts between Maradona's orgasmic movements and his memories of his football successes. As the scene progresses the cuts become quicker, leaving you to confusingly realise that, yes, the lovers are a different age every time the film cuts back to them. It's a remarkably weird sequence, and it's the only time the movie truly gets Maradona's obsessive indulgency across, expressing how it feels to be in his mindset that seems to lack any sort of self-control. It almost gets there again during his overlong wedding speech in which he barely spends time on his love for Claudia and his family, instead listing all his grievances and the people, some long forgotten, who have wronged him. The film is most helped though by Juan Leyrado, playing Guillermo Coppola, Maradona's greedy agent, as if he is the devil incarnate. It is only when he is on screen that the film feels like it is set in the kind of absurd unreality Maradona evoked.
The International Film Fesival of Rotterdam once screened the film Nazidanie, a pseudo-documentary about Zinedine Zidane, that basically turns his story into a biblical, mythical prophecy that culminates with him headbutting Marco Materazzi. Not every film about enigmatic sporting heroes can be like that, but a film about Maradona that calls itself 'the Hand of God' needs to go much more into that direction than this one does. Maradona is one of the most fascinating figures of the 20th century, whether you like football or not. There are very few people in the world who can say that they have singlehandedly reconfigured the entire identity of a city. Maradona's Godlike stature in Argentina and Naples is not just related to his football greatness, but also (or even, more so) to the fact that he achieved football greatness despite breaking every possible rule of how to get there. He would neither be as tragic or as popular if he had been less deviant and less self-destructive, but it's hard to make a mainstream film that toes that line. Risi's struggles are quite understandable, as he can't either explictly condemn or glorify his lifestyle and drug addiction. As a result he ends up whitewashing Maradona in the final scenes in a way that feels quite dishonest. It's not needed too; I don't wanna be a conspiracy theorist, but I am susceptible to the idea that as the rules of football increasingly benefit the super rich, football is increasingly implementing measures that make it harder to deviate from those rules. VAR sucks for other reasons too, and will only make Maradona's "hand of god" goal more iconic.
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