written for RED
https://www.red.com/stories/the-hand-of-god
Award-winning writer and director
Paolo Sorrentino’s latest film, The Hand of God, is the poetical
story of a young man’s heartbreak and liberation in 1980s Naples, Italy. The
story follows Fabietto, an awkward Italian teen whose life and vibrant,
eccentric family are suddenly upended—first by the electrifying arrival of soccer
legend Diego Maradona to play for the local team and then by a shocking
accident which leaves him orphaned aged 17.
The Netflix-produced film is deeply
personal for Sorrentino while universal in its themes of fate and family,
sports and cinema, love and loss.
“I was very moved by his script
because this is a very intimate story and the fact that Paolo thought of
entrusting me with this as our first feature collaboration together really
touched me,” says cinematographer Daria D’Antonio. “I felt a great responsibility
for transposing and translating the emotion of the story in a cinematic way.”
D’Antonio has worked for many years
as part of Sorrentino’s camera crew, including Il Divo and La
Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty). She was also the first woman to win the
Globo D’Oro for Best Cinematography twice – for Marco Segato’s La Pelle
dell’Orso (The Bear Skin) and Valerio Mieli’s Ricordi. The
Hand of God is her debut as DP for Sorrentino after learning first
hand from Sorrentino’s frequent cinematographer – and her “maestro” – Luca
Bigazzi.
Sorrentino says of working with
D’Antonio, “I didn’t even have to speak to her about what I wanted because she
instinctively and sensitively understood that the visuals needed to be sober,
to take a step back in order to leave space for the emotions.”
To film the story, the director
returned to his hometown, which not coincidentally, is also where D’Antonio was
born and raised. She was delighted to capture the beauty of the city. “Both
Paolo and I felt this deep and affectionate connection with places in Naples. I
wanted to show them the way I remember yet also be faithful to his memory.”
D’Antonio reveals that she was the
same age as the film’s protagonist when he begins to discover the city.
“Fabietto meets film director Antonio Capuano (Sorrentino’s real-life mentor)
at the theater, which we filmed at the same theater I went to growing up.”
In keeping with the low-key
sensibility of the film, the filmmakers decided to work with natural light as
far as possible. “The concept was to have a very simple look for the film and
not stress the fact that this is a set in the 1980s,” she explains. “We don’t
make a feature of it any more than the costumes and set dressing give an
impression of the period. We wanted to recreate truth and not do anything over
the top visually.”
For this delicate portrayal,
D’Antonio selected a RED camera with the MONSTRO 8K VV sensor, combined with
ARRI Signature primes. It’s a camera that Sorrentino was familiar with, having
used the RED WEAPON HELIUM 8K to make HBO’s The New Pope. D’Antonio
had also selected RED to film her award-winning features The Bear Skin and Ricordi.
“RED immediately allows me to control the images that I record,” she says.
“It’s a very versatile camera, and when combined with the sensor’s ability to
capture high dynamic range, it was particularly suitable for the way Paolo
wanted to shoot.”
As the film’s story unfolds, the
color tones shift subtly to reflect the trajectory of the hero falling rapidly
into and then rising from desolation. Sorrentino was initially tempted to use
the acidic tones of the ‘80s period “to give it the feel of watching a VHS tape
but Daria, who is sharper when it comes to lighting, was skeptical. I realized
she was pointing me in the right direction for the story.”
D’Antonio recalls talking with
Sorrentino about “making the first part of the film vivid” and then as
Fabietto’s happiness fades, “the colors fade as well, only to come back to
vivid life at the end.”
For the more muted and desaturated
portion of the film, D’Antonio worked with DIT Marco Palmieri and colorist
Andrea Orsini at Rome’s Grande Mela Digital Film.
Another key aesthetic decision was to
reign in the director’s typically swirling camerawork for something much
quieter and unfussy. There are very few Steadicam or handheld shots.
“It’s a camera that listens,” she
says. “The camera is invisible. My aim was to always respect the sensitive
nature of the story, always to focus on the people and the emotion of the
scene. We wanted to capture very particular moments, and to avoid large-scale
visual constructions in which such moments might get lost.”
Yet the scene in which Fabietto
enjoys a summer lunch with his family at a country house, languishing over
overflowing plates of food, was filmed with four DSMC2 MONSTROS. “It was shot
almost like an action movie. The scene has 15 actors and there’s lots of
crisscrossing dialogue. Paolo wanted the drama to have the pace of a comedy or
action film, so he wanted a lot of coverage. Plus, we shot outdoors over
several days with the weather changing. Multiple cameras helped give us
continuity in the edit.”
Scenes set in Fabietto’s apartment were filmed in
the apartment just a floor below where Sorrentino actually grew up with his
family. This proved particularly challenging because of the small space in
which to work. “The main issue was the low ceiling which allowed for very
little beyond basic composition,” D’Antonio says, “but the apartment was lit
with this beautiful early morning light through the windows. That light hasn’t
changed since Paolo lived there. It was just a hint of memory we could use.”
Despite the responsibility she felt
of carrying Sorrentino’s personal story to screen, he told her he was very
happy with the result. “It was what he wanted it to be,” she says.
The duo is already working together
on their next feature production, Mob Girl, starring Jennifer
Lawrence.
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