The collaboration of director Paolo Sorrentino and the actor some call his “muse”, Toni Servillo will go down in history as one of the great ones, with La Grande Bellezza remembered as a masterpiece. If you want to see where it all began, you’ll want to dig up a copy of Sorrentino’s first feature film, L’Uomo in Più (English title: One Man Up), an ambitious and interesting if not perfectly executed movie that stars Servillo as an Italian pop star.
Tony Pisapia (Servillo) has been living hard, snorting cocaine and having sex with girls whose IDs he should have been checking. He lands himself in jail for statuatory rape and his career goes down the tubes.
At the same time, he’s got a living and breathing alter ego, ten years younger but also named Antonio Pisapia who is going through a similar personal and professional crisis. This Antonio’s problems weren’t caused by bad behavior; he’s a famous football (calcio, soccer, whatever you want to call it) who blows out a knee and can’t play anymore.
Both Antonios just want to get back to their respective careers; Tony the singer is told that he’s got to wait until the scandal wears down a little, and calcio Antonio is promised a coaching job, if he’ll just be patient. What each man has to give and lose in their struggles to succeed will ultimately define them in ways that they’d never hoped for or thought possible.
Sorrentino was just 31 when he wrote and directed this film, and you can see the immaturity, mostly in the ending, where some of the slowness of the first part could have served the last part well. The last scenes were a bit “Wait…What?” moments for me, and it was as if Sorrentino couldn’t think of a good way to end it so he just threw something in there.
But it’s a fascinating character study of two parallel lives, thought-provoking and bittersweet in its study of what human frailty and ego does to us in a crisis.
It was fun to watch Sorrentino trying out directing techniques as well; there are flashes of Kubrick, Scorcese, and even a couple of Ingmar Berman images from the young man who has grown into a great director in his own right and deserves this year’s Oscar!
I Love Italian Everything 