Sport in Paolo Sorrentino’s Movies

Abstract

While sport is a popular theme for film directors, it is all too rarely studied by social science researchers. This is all the more true when it is considered as just one of the many narrative or decorative elements of the film and is not at the heart of the story. Such is the case for academic studies related to Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s work, in which the easily identifiable theme of sport is surprisingly nowhere to be found. Indeed, while reference to the body periodically occurs, most of the work conducted on his feature films focuses on the recurrent themes of politics and the quest for power, loneliness and isolation, the flâneur in post-industrial society, sexism, irony, and of course the mafia. The sporting occurrences (including footballer Antonio Pisapia in L’Uomo in più, Cheyenne’s ping-pong match in This Must Be the Place, as well as Fred Ballinger and Mick Boyle’s alpine treks in Youth, etc.) cannot be missed. Why then does Sorrentino choose to refer to sport: for societal, narrative or nostalgic reasons? These questions and more invite us to identify the “constants” and “variables” of this theme, so as to highlight a strong element of his style.