2 Years After Monte-Cristo, This Actor’s Triumphant Return to Cinema, Still Charismatic!

What’s It About?

Set in the 1980s, a former tennis player becomes the coach of a young, timid talent overwhelmed by his father’s expectations.

Ace of Aces

What more can be said about Pierfrancesco Favino that we don’t already know? Each new film he stars in only serves to remind us of the Italian actor’s talent, recognized at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019 with an award for “The Traitor,” as well as his ability to impress without the need for transformation. This is evident in “Enzo,” a film by Laurent Cantet and directed by Robin Campillo, marking another venture into our cinema two years after the success of “The Count of Monte Cristo.”

Almost two years after the Dumas adaptation by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière, Favino returns to our screens with an Italian film set slightly closer to our time, as it unfolds in the 1980s. Directed by Andrea Di Stefano (who previously directed Favino in “Last Night in Milan”), this drama, not without its lighter moments, follows the relationship between a tennis prodigy and a former star who becomes both his coach and a surrogate father.

A classic narrative drawn with precision and tenderness, allowing “Il Maestro” to transcend the typical sports film framework (while still ensuring that its tennis scenes are cinematic) and making it more universal. So much so, we asked Pierfrancesco Favino if he had formed a similar mentor-student relationship with Tiziano Menichelli, his co-star: “He was looking for guidance,” says the actor, who ran a theater school in Florence for nine years until its closure, enabling him to pass on what he had learned in his younger years.

“He was mostly curious about how to live on set. He had questions about respecting the craft when off-camera, and we started joking about it. He’s an incredible young actor with a unique soul, and it was extremely easy to work with him. I could see he was looking for something from me, but I also learned a lot from him.” And they played tennis off-camera, although this huge sports fan and die-hard supporter of AS Roma didn’t take the opportunity to meet current players, including his compatriot Jannik Sinner.

“I Wish Film and Sports Could Evoke the Same Emotions”

Well-placed between his profession and his passion, Favino is poised to judge whether films can unite people the same way sports do and evoke the same emotions: “I would like that to be the case. That viewers could feel the same about characters as I do about my football team. I think in the early days of cinema, when people saw a movie hero or heroine, they supported them until the end. We have this kind of attitude within us, but it may have become less instinctive and more intellectual over time.”

“That’s where the emotion takes us. When we think about the movies we love, it’s because by the end, we want the hero or heroine to do everything possible to win. It’s a different kind of energy, but I’d really like to see moviegoers support a character in the same way we do in sports.” One thing is certain: we haven’t finished supporting Pierfrancesco Favino whenever he appears on camera, especially if he continues to deliver performances as accurate and precise as a backhand down the line.

AlloCiné features over 40 daily articles about film and TV news, interviews, streaming recommendations, quirky facts for movie and series fans. Subscribing to AlloCiné on Google Discover ensures you explore the daily riches of a site designed by enthusiasts for enthusiasts.