“I wanted to do something unconventional. So I thought of a crossbreeding of genres: you have comedy, western, musical, tragedy, farce... Also, I went for different tones: black and white cinematography, slow motion, stylized compositions. I tried to fly as high as I could and at the same time deal with the very basics of popular comedy,” said Italian filmmaker Paolo Zucca about El árbitro (L’arbitro), previously screened this year at the festival Cinema Made in Italy, and now commercially released.
Of all things, L’arbitro is a somewhat accomplished opera prima that spins the story of the Atletico Pabarile, arguably the worst team of the Sardinian third division, which is constantly defeated, time and again, by Montecrastu, a popular and more vigorous team. Sheer humiliation, and not soccer, is the real name of the game for the unfortunate players of the Atletico Pabarile. However, things are about to change big time.
The young Matzutzi (Jacopo Cullin) returns to his home town and starts playing against Montecrastu, and so Pabarile starts winning match after match. Nobody expected something like this, and a feeling of gloom overruns the disoriented players of Montecrastu. In turn, another story comes into the field: that of Cruciani (Stefano Accorsi), a referee with high aspirations. From then on, a story of blind ambition and corruption unfolds.
Partly inspired by the writings of Argentine author Osvaldo Soriano, particularly the short story El penal más largo del mundo, Paolo Zucca’s L’arbitro is stylishly shot and fluently narrated — the eye-catching, sometimes slightly surreal black and white cinematography is to be celebrated — and it speaks of the world of lower division soccer with an infectious sense of humour. The best thing is that more than conveying a set of ideas, Zucca is after capturing moods and ambiance stemming out of the drama. And he does so without ever being over formalistic or arty.
But there are a few times when L’arbitro becomes repetitive and too explanatory. Things don’t need to be spelled out for viewers when actions and reactions have already spoken in a better way. Furthermore, not all comedic scenes work out that well: they sometimes lack the right timing, or they are far too obvious, or they are just not funny enough. And since comedy is the genre that contains all the other genres, it’s easy to see when something goes wrong.
The biggest achievement of Zucca’s opus is how it tackles the many facets of the world of soccer’s dark side by just focusing on seemingly unimportant anecdotes and some occasional vignettes.
Production notes
El árbitro / L’arbitro (Italy / Argentina, 2013). Directed by: Paolo Zucca. Written by: Paolo Zucca and Barbara Alberti. With Stefano Accorsi, Geppi Cucciari, Jacopo Cullin, Alessio Di Clemante, Marco Messeri, Gregoire Oestermann, Benito Urgu, Franco Fais. Cinematography: Patrizio Patrizi. Editing: Sarah Mc Teigue. Music: Andrea Guerra. Sound: Piero Francellu. Produced by Amedeo Paragani, Daniel Burman, Diego Dubcovsky. Distributed by: Primer Plano. NC13. Running time: 96 minutes.
