If in 2008, Diego Maradona had made the trip to the Cannes Film Festival for the presentation of a film dedicated to his life,
El Pibe de Oro
, by Emir Kusturica, in May 2019, Asif Kapadia had not climbed the steps with the football legend who just died at the age of 60.
A painful shoulder had held the football legend away from the Croisette where his portrait entitled "Diego Maradona" was projected, quite simply.
Because this name is self-sufficient.
Read also: Football - Aged 60, Diego Maradona is dead
“In October 2016, I went to Dubai to meet him,”
Kapadia recalls.
He was coaching a team there at the time.
I arrive with my two producers and a team to film it.
For five days, he spent his time canceling our appointments.
I finally managed to see him, but five minutes because he was not feeling well.
He offered to take a picture, shook my hand and said,
'We're going to make a great movie.' "
“Talking about football, no problem.
Women, drugs and the mafia, it was more complicated ”
Asif Kapadia
Kapadia leaves empty-handed but begins to make the film without Maradona.
He does research on his side, meets the player's entourage.
A year later, he decides to return to Dubai to try his luck again.
“I usually do five-hour filmed interviews.
With Maradona, it was impossible.
He couldn't stay focused for more than an hour and a half.
He got bored very quickly.
Every minute counted, you had to get to the point quickly.
The second time, I came without a camera.
Alone with a sound engineer.
I sat down on the floor.
He answered my questions.
Simply, without doing the show.
I understood that this was the right method.
Over the course of the interviews, I asked more and more embarrassing questions.
He sent me to graze:
“We mustn't talk about that!”
Or he would answer beside it.
Talking about football, no problem.
Women, drugs and the Mafia, it was more complicated.
One day, he said to me:
“You have the guts to dare to ask these questions to my face.”
He paused for a long time before adding:
“For that, I respect you.
Others talk about me behind my back. ”
"
Maradona had a reputation for monetizing the interviews he gave in the media.
What about Kapadia?
“I did not participate in the negotiations.
You should ask my producer.
I know Maradona really liked my film on Senna and the one on
Amy Winehouse
had just won the Oscar for best documentary film, ”
replied the British director when we met him.
The cinephile Maradona had mandated his lawyers.
In the deal, there were 500 hours of incredible and never-before-seen footage.
In 1981, the agent of Maradona had indeed hired two cameramen to stick to the shorts of the Argentine player, on and off the field.
The idea was to shoot a film to the glory of the young prodigy.
“The project never came to fruition,”
Kapadia explained.
I don't think the two cameramen were ever paid.
They kept half of the tapes in Naples.
The other half slept in a safe at Maradona's ex-wife, Claudia, in Buenos Aires. ”
"Mangy dogs"
Naples, where it all begins, where it all ends for Maradona.
Kapadia holds his angle.
In 1984, the poorest city in Europe recruited the most expensive player in the world.
The Argentinian, a kid from the slums and a rising star, has just failed in Barcelona.
Napoli is a losers club.
In the stadiums of northern Italy, its supporters are greeted by humiliating banners:
"Wash yourself", "Hello mangy dogs"!
It will change.
Naples wins the championship for the first time in its history, in 1987, thanks to a sparkling Maradona, meanwhile world champion with Argentina in 1986 in Mexico.
Nostalgia for a football full of panache and without VAR.
On a wall in the cemetery, this inscription:
"We missed something."
Even for the dead, the player becomes a living god.
San Paolo Stadium turns into a molten volcano.
But in Naples, a dangerous city, he is overtaken by his demons.
His extra-marital escapades, his addiction to cocaine and his links with the Camorra, the Neapolitan mafia, will cause his downfall.
The Giuliano clan covers him with gifts, leads him by the nose, which he has full of powder.
Kapadia makes the archives and witnesses of the time speak to tell this descent into hell.
In voice-over, Maradona, with a pasty mouth, denies everything:
"These are lies."
In 1991, the fall is vertiginous.
The club and the media let him go.
"The life and career of Maradona are a succession of cycles
"
,
Kapadia analysis.
He is brilliant, reaches the peaks before tumbling down.
He is believed to be dead and he is reborn.
He goes up the better to disappoint, and so on.
We find these ups and downs in Barcelona, Argentina, Naples, Seville… His last comeback took place at the 1994 World Cup. He played two games before being tested positive.
When the Kapadia movie comes out, Maradona is 58 years old.
He is no more than the shadow of the genius he once was.
He can then quote George Best, the legendary Manchester United striker, who died at 59:
“I spent a lot of money on alcohol, girls and sports cars.
The rest, I wasted. "
Diego Maradona, documentary (2h10) by Asif Kapadia, available on all VOD platforms and on DVD (Blaq Out).