Berlinale Bloggers 2023
Laggiù qualcuno mi ama!

With "Laggiù qualcuno mi ama" (international title: "Somebody Down Here Likes Me") Mario Martone presents an exceptionally beautiful documentary about Massimo Troisi at the 73rd Berlinale. Here is our review.
 

By Carlo Giuliano

Mario Martone's new documentary, Laggiù qualcuno mi ama, screening in the Special section of this 73rd Berlinale and already in theaters in Italy since February 23, begins seemingly unremarkably - to the strains of Je so' pazzo by Pino Daniele. This (extremely welcome) opening is followed by faces and archival footage from fifty years of Italian history, capturing the spirit, life and legacy of the genius Massimo Troisi.

Massimo Troisi - a genius

A genius that, thanks to Mario Martone, will be recognized as such by a little more people today. Because Martone succeeds in doing exactly what should be the goal of any documentary film, because otherwise there is no point in making or watching them: to be exhaustive. His portrayal of Troisi's modernity and complexity in all its facets is so comprehensive that it almost creates a dangerous paradox. For Laggiù qualcuno mi ama is so well done that the film makes even those who have never seen even one of his works feel as if they have known Massimo Troisi all their lives.
There is everything in Martone's film, just as there was everything in Troisi's films: "There was the love that was the center of life and everything became immediately political, because it was simply life." There is the feminist Troisi who in contrast to previous tradition, „does not chase, but follow women." There are the ties to the Nouvelle Vague. And when Martone says that Troisi's films are reminiscent of Truffaut's because "there is running in both" (and not only because of that), he is perhaps unaware that the arc he has drawn reaches to the present day, to Licorice Pizza.

A thank you to Martone

And then there is that southern Italian political tension, the position of a "man who is against it on principle," but also a Troisi who, when asked "Where is Naples?" in negative reviews, reacts angrily and replies, "Is Fellini asked where Rimini is in his films?" There is love, which is life, but Troisi says that love is "nerve-wracking," so it applies to life as well. Maybe that's what Troisi was going for: Laughter so loud that you can't hear the cry of despair that is also there and remains, down there, in the lives of all of us. This is what I saw in Berlin: an audience grateful to Martone for having reminded them of Troisi and for making them forget, if only for a few hours, the hardships of life through him.