L' uomo in più

Two men learn firsthand about the cruel twists of fame and fortune in the first film from Italian director Paolo Sorrentino. In the early 1980’s, Tony Pisapia and Antonio, have each risen to the peak of their chosen professions. Tony is a nightclub singer who after years of struggle has achieved nationwide fame, and Antonio is a soccer player who becomes a star after scoring the game-winning goal in a European championship match. However, a few years down the line both men are experiencing a sharp reversal of their good fortune. Tony has developed a devastating addiction, while a leg injury has put an end to Antonio’s career. He finds himself starting from zero. L’UOMO IN PIÙ is loosely based on the stories of two Italian celebrities, musician Franco Califano and football star Agostino Di Bartolomei. (Mark Deming)
“Despite their fame neither character seems to be aware of the other’s existence, nor does anybody else comment on the strange coincidence, that they are born on the same day. Yet at their nadir their paths cross and they exchange gazes pregnant with unspecified significance, apparently recognizing some strange affinity with one another. Antonio subsequently appears on the TV programme Public Confessions, saying, ‘Today I met a person ...’ His gaze into the camera is met by Tony, watching the programme in his living room, and the phrase is left incomplete and unexplained. Although the narrative clearly has ambitions beyond a simple tale of thwarted ambitions, the precise meaning behind Sorrentino’s prize-winning script remains deliberately elusive.” (Alex Marlow-Mann, The New Neapolitan Cinema)