Filippo Scotti

Toni Servillo

Teresa Saponangelo

Luisa Ranieri

Marlon Joubert

Massimiliano Gallo

Betti Pedrazzi

Renato Carpentieri

Enzo De Caro

Sofya Gershevich

Lino Musella

Biagio Manna

Ciro Capano

Alessandro Bressanello

Birte Berg

Dora Romano

Monica Nappo

Cristiana Dell'Anna

Marina Viro

Daniele Vicorito

Celeste Dalla Porta

Alfonso Perugini

Paolo Sorrentino

Riccardo Neri

Elena Recchia

Emanuele Cecere

Mariano Tufano

Mirko Perri

Federico Carretti

Marco Perna

Michele Mazzucco

Daria D'Antonio

Carmine Guarino

Saverio Sammali

Peter Nicastro

Lele Marchitelli

Rodolfo Migliari

Cristiano Travaglioli

Alessandro Quaglio

Annamaria Sambucco

Matteo Eusepi

Silvia Moraes

Giada Lombino

Vincenzo Mastrantonio

Lorenzo Mieli

Drama

È stata la mano di Dio

The Apartment Pictures

Italy

Italiano

The Hand of God

italy

naples, italy

loss of virginity

family relationships

coming of age

poverty

teenage boy

football (soccer) fan

semi autobiographical

1980s

Calling this a "coming-of-age" film is like calling Bud Lite a beer. They're not in the same class. I compare this film to my other favorite re-telling of a seminal childhood memory - Joanna Hogg's Souvenir.

The great Austrian poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, once wrote "For it is not yet the memories themselves. Not till they have turned to blood within us, to glance and gesture, nameless and no longer to be distinguished from ourselves - not till then can it happen that in a most rare hour the first word of a verse arises in their midst and goes forth from them." And that is visible here. Sorrentino writes this film in his own nameless, demential blood. I laughed. I cried. This film is one of those rare captures of the human condition. This is a brilliant piece of storytelling with masterful direction and top-notch acting.

That's all I have to say.

CinemaSerf

Told largely from the perspective of the young "Fabietto" (Filippo Scotti), this is a charming tale of this youth who lives with elder brother "Marchino" (Marlon Joubert) and his parents "Saverio" (Toni Servillo) and "Maria" (Teresa Saponangelo). Both teenagers are frequently tempted by their somewhat exhibitionist aunt "Patricia" (Luisa Ranieri) a temptation only matched by their (and the entire city of Naples') desire to see Diego Maradona come and play at Napoli. Director Paolo Sorrentino packs quite a lot into this story. Sex, fun, friendship, betrayal, tragedy, beautiful scenery and a sense of family that is usually quite difficult to encapsulate without becoming too sentimental. The young Scotti (who reminded me a lot of Timothée Chalamet) plays well as an archetypal boy - he likes football and girls, but has no idea about the latter; and the engaging character development from boy to man is told quite imaginatively, I felt. No, it doesn't need a big screen - indeed maybe that compromises some of the intimacy of the story, but if you want to see a well crafted, enjoyable to look at story then I'd recommend this.

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The Hand of God( 2021)

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A review by badelf

Written by badelf on Mon Dec 20 2021

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