BAGGIO UNHAPPY BEHIND THE SCENES

FOOTBALLER FOUND INNER PEACE BEFORE SUCCESS

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

One of the greatest footballers in the world ever could have been even better.

Baggio: The Divine Ponytail (2021) directed by Letizia Lamartire, stars Andrea Arcangeli as the 22 year old attacking forward for the Italian National Team.

Arcangeli shows how Baggio struggled off the field, often dissatisfied with his own performance despite national and international acclaim as one of the great footballers.

Baggio suffered what could have been a career ending knee injury just as he turned pro, resulting in him playing in only two games in two years as the young athlete struggled physically and psychologically to recover from the early set back.

Lamartire begins further back yet with Baggio as a young child knocking the glass out of his father’s windowed doors while practicing penalty kicks. Lamartire periodically returns to this scene to emphasis the pressure Baggio is under to win after a lifelong pursuit of perfection in the beautiful game.

Lamartire also uses on the field play as the back story, running instead with the footballer’s personal struggles and self-sacrifice as the main narrative, intertwined with the politics of the national team and the coach limiting his ability to achieve for his beloved country.

Baggio is shown as keeping life together by practicing Buddhism in a Catholic dominated culture. Only by achieving a state of inner peace is Baggio able to achieve some of his life goals on the football field.

Valentina Belle plays Andreina, Baggio’s girlfriend from a young age who stays loyal to him despite his many ups and downs. Andreina eventually moves to wherever Baggio has been relocated by his team.

Lamartire is able to create a few artful scenes despite an obvious small production budget. And at the same time, she does not over dramatize what is essentially a coming of age sports story.

Lamartire could have used mixed media and archival footage of Baggio scoring goals to make more artful scenes and more compelling narrative transitions to dramatized scenes in the storyline, but instead the director seems to use Baggio’s discovery of Buddhism as a narrative device by focusing the film on the life events that trigger his inner struggles, as opposed to the development of his public image.

The director does not over use flashbacks and flash forwards to denote inner turmoil. But having said that, this play in narrative devices lacks a bit of sophistication. And Lamartire misses an opportunity to really underscore the narrative stream with this overall vision.

The storyline is a brisk 92 minute runtime, missing about 30 minutes of cinematic art just off a bit too far to the left.

Baggio: The Divine Ponytail is streaming on Netflix.