The Hand of God

19 January 2023

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Careful, there are spoilers in this review!
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There are directors whose new films I don’t put off, but I try to watch them as soon as they become available. Such directors include Paolo Sorrentino and his new film, named in the Russian box office “The Hand of God” (in the original “It was the Hand of God”) / È stata la mano di Dio, 2021. As always, Sorrentino did not talk about the content of the film, and obviously for this reason, numerous writers decided that he would shoot a film about Maradona, who really once played for the Napoli club, and the film is set in Naples, the hometown of Sorrentino. Maradona, of course, is mentioned in the film, moreover, one of the relatives of the main character declares that he saved the boy from death, he called it the hand of God - instead of going with his parents to the country house, he went to the match with Maradona on a subscription given to him by his father for his birthday, so really because of this he survived, while his parents died inhaling carbon monoxide, well, they had no experience with the fireplace. In fact, this is an autobiographical film about the youth of the director, Fabio (Philippo Scotti) is himself, about his parents - Saverio (Tony Servillo) and Maria (Teresa Saponangelo), about the mentally ill aunt Patricia (Luisa Ranieri) - the sister of his mother, with whom he was childishly in love, about relatives and other characters. By the way, the story of the death of his parents and his rescue was exactly the same as in the film. About how he decided to make films, although he had never been a fan of it before, like many other directors who were fond of it since childhood. He grew up in a good family, in which the parents seemed to be friends with each other and with the children, however, we see only brothers, sister, if present, it is only in the form of a voice emanating from the bathroom in which she spends most of her time, and we will see her only at the very end, when Fabio has already left the parental house. However, in the course of the action it turns out that the parents’ relationship was not cloudless, the father had a mistress for many years, the biggest secret about which Fabio learns only at the very end from his sister. We see the life of a lonely guy, he has no friends, for a short time, a situational friend will appear, but he will turn out to be a criminal and go to prison. They will have different views on life with their brother. How close the image of Fabio to the personality of Sorrentino - it is for him to decide what he wanted, he showed, but the film was made, like all his films, OK, the actors are beautiful, I may not be very objective, but I liked the film.

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11 February 2022

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The hand of God.

You can believe it or not, and call it whatever you want - He won't be offended. He is always with us, and we cannot realize it, withdraw, deny, doubt, return, ask forgiveness, and finally surrender to His will.

But apart from our spiritual experiences, we have an ordinary earthly life where we go to work, create families, hope for the best. And, in fact, about this film of my favorite director Paolo Sorrentino “Hand of God”.

This film is about relationships, how people live their best and worst moments, and how people around them allow them to live their best and worst moments without interfering, without judging, without giving unnecessary advice.

For most of us, this film can become a textbook - how to live your emotions, manifesting yourself, how to "be" yourself, real, sincere and genuine. About what it means to love and accept life with loved ones in its entirety.

The Italians in this film are like children - lively and direct. They are very similar to us in some ways, but there is one big difference: even in their worst times, they are not negative, do not blame others for their misfortunes, do not insult, do not offend, do not show aggression.

The hand of God is an invisible connection of events in people’s lives, where everything is intertwined: joy and sadness, love and pain, play and life.

The film leaves a bright impression, despite the drama taking place in it. Sorrentino is a master of feeling. It is the living of our senses that makes us alive and real.

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29 April 2022

06 February 2022

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Anyone who loves the work of Paolo Sorrentino can imagine this film before viewing: beautiful, good acting, many characters and a lot of tweaks between them. There are funny episodes in places. It’s about finding your place in the world when you’re single. The story is slow and deep for 120 minutes. Scotty looks great. This is the decoration of the film: a young face against the backdrop of beautiful scenery. Everything looks very harmonious.

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