17/02/2023 - BERLINALE 2023: Mario Martone pays an affectionate and sincere tribute to the Neapolitan actor-director Massimo Troisi, who died prematurely in 1994 and is still a source of inspiration today

There is also Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino among those who say they are still inspired by the genius of Massimo Troisi, in the documentary that Mario Martone dedicates, 70 years after his birth, to the beloved Neapolitan actor, screenwriter and director who died prematurely in 1994, at the age of just 41, and was never forgotten. Massimo Troisi: Somebody Down There Likes Me [+see also:
trailer
interview: Mario Martone
film profile], which had its world premiere at the 73rd Berlinale in the Berlinale Special section, is a personal journey by the author of The King of Laughter [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Mario Martone
film profile] and Nostalgia [+see also:
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interview: Mario Martone
interview: Pierfrancesco Favino
film profile] through the artistic career of Troisi, a Neapolitan actor with a disruptive, innovative comic power, but above all a creatively free filmmaker, perhaps underestimated, and of whom Martone offers interesting keys to interpretation.

"Troisi's cinema was beautiful because it had the shape of life," Martone makes clear in the first moments of the film. From his first steps on cabaret stages with his friends Lello Arena and Enzo Decaro (here we see them introduced by Nobel prize-winner Dario Fo, who praises the popular satire of this trio of youngsters who went down in history as La Smorfia) to his debut in cinema in the early 1980s with I’m Starting from Three; from his association with Anna Pavignano, for years his partner and co-writer of all his films, to Il postino (The Postman), nominated for five Oscars (one won for the soundtrack), completed the day before he died suddenly, beaten by a heart condition he had been fighting for some time; all this passing through his collaboration with Roberto Benigni and the masterpiece of comedy Nothing Left To Do But Cry, the bond with his musical alter ego Pino Daniele, who composed the music for Pensavo fosse amore... invece era un calesse, and again, his roles as an actor directed by Ettore Scola and alongside Marcello Mastroianni (they won the Coppa Volpi together at Venice for What Time Is It?).

Amongst film clips, interviews with artists who were inspired by him (including the comedy duo Ficarra and Picone, currently recovering from the great success of Strangeness [+see also:
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trailer
film profile]), extraordinary archive footage of daily life on the streets of Naples, and previously unpublished material such as personal diaries and notes where Troisi jotted down his ideas, recordings of mock psychoanalytical sessions in which we hear him lay himself bare, Martone builds a portrait of an exceptional soul and talent, beneath the veneer of normality and sense of inadequacy that his on-screen character conveyed, funny and heartbreaking at the same time. Inadequate, fragile and insane: the 'Italian Antoine Doinel', as the director of L'amore molesto defines him, finding in him and in his poetics characteristics that refer directly to Truffaut. The film dwells in particular on the unprecedented representation Troisi gives of the male in his works. Until then, we were used to figures such as Gassmann and Tognazzi in Italian cinema, swaggering men who conquer fatal women; with Troisi, the insecure man enters the scene, in the presence of female figures who are, on the contrary, strong, independent and fighters – women with whom he pursues love, which more often than not proves impossible.

And then there is Naples, to which Troisi looks with affectionate indolence, while nevertheless seeking to question its clichés and excesses. The comic dimension combined with the exploration of the human soul, an uncommon capacity for mimicry and the sweetness that he infuses into his characters, so much so as to make the comparison to Charlie Chaplin not so daring, are further aspects that complete this sincere tale that Martone dedicates to a beloved and regretted fellow citizen, a tender homage "from director to director" that for two hours takes the spectator back in time, to an unrepeatable creative period.

Massimo Troisi: Somebody Down There Likes Me was produced by Indiana Production, Vision Distribution and Medusa Film, in collaboration with Sky. Distribution is handled by Medusa Film and Vision Distribution; the latter also handles international sales.

(Translated from Italian)