L'uomo in più

Everything is born.
At a certain moment everything has a principle. We all have a principle.
Birth.
The miracle of a life's birth.
But this miracle can multiply within our very existence.
A director, for example, is born at the moment his passion is born and is born again when he signs his debut film.
"The Extra Man" is the beginning of Paolo Sorrentino's life as a director.
It is his artistic date of birth.
It was 2001 and even then Toni Servillo seemed to be the perfect complement to the poetics of the Neapolitan director.
The very beautiful aspect of "L'uomo in più" is that it looks just what it is, a debut film.
Speaking in retrospect we can see how Sorrentino has been able to evolve his poetics over the years starting from a film much more raw, simple and aesthetically inferior to the others, less powerful visually.
This, however, does not take anything away from the great work done in this first work.
A work on decline, on the search for redemption.
On the search, not on redemption.
The protagonists, in fact, are 2 men who, for different reasons, will reach a point of rupture with life that will force them to seek a legitimation as people and not as symbols.
The 2 Antonio Pisapia were 2 old glories, one of football, the other of music.
2 totems of 2 inviolable cornerstones of the Italic culture.
The first one will be marginalized from his world for being honest. His passion will become obsession. The obsession will lead him to loneliness. Loneliness in the ultimate end.
The second will lose the privileges of success (women, money, fame, respect) for having slept with a 16-year-old girl in a totally consensual way.
Both will find themselves struggling with who they were and who they would have liked to be.
Life will slam a wall in front of them, impassable.
The search for redemption, for being finally free goes hand in hand with an inexorable decline.
In this film Sorrentino manages to paint Italy and man with the usual depth.
There will be time to refine the touch as he himself will demonstrate.
The substance of his new life is born with this film.