Perhaps it is no coincidence at all that Neri Marcorè's directorial debut is dedicated to a delicate and tender story perfectly suited to this actor.
This is Zamora, taken from the book of the same name by Roberto Perrone (Garzanti), with the misadventures, in the fabulous and unrepeatable sixties, of the thirty-year-old Walter Vismara (Alberto Paradossi), an accountant by profession, but even more in life, someone who works as accountant in a small factory in Vigevano.
"This film reflects me in every way, for better or for worse - Marcorè tells ANSA -. There is a lot of my stuff in it. It's also a story I knew. There had already been a project in which we talked about me as the protagonist. Then when I went to Agostino Saccà to propose Zamora, he was the one who said to me: why don't you direct it?".
Returning to Zamora, who moved to Bif&st and was in theaters with 01 from 4 April, we see that Walter finds himself at a certain point catapulted into a company in modern Milan and at the service of a modern and bizarre entrepreneur, the cavalier Tosetto (Giovanni Storti) .
Walter adapts immediately to the new job, but has to deal with his boss who loves football and fancifully forces all his employees into weekly 'bachelor vs. married' challenges.
Walter, who doesn't like football, invents himself as a goalkeeper, but is totally clumsy and becomes the object of teasing from his colleagues;
among these, engineer Gusperti ironically renames him 'Zamora', the great Spanish goalkeeper of the 1930s.
Walter endures everything, but when he falls in love with his secretary, Ada (Marta Gastini), he seeks redemption.
He gets lessons from a former goalkeeper (Neri Marcoré), who has now fallen into disgrace, to become the champion he never was.
"This story reflects me - reiterates Marcorè in Bari - because it contains elements that are typical of my adolescence, that is, my shyness, my insecurity, my hindrances. I found in Perrone's novel all the elements to talk about both about myself and at the same time contemporary time. I am referring above all to the relationship between Walter and his secretary which does not go as the accountant would like, but this is only his fault. She gives him a lesson by making him understand that he must mature in his relationship with women. It must be said - continues the director - that on the front of modernity the female characters in Zamora are all independent and modern and give a lead to the male ones".
Is there something autobiographical about the role of goalkeeper too?
No, I have never played as a goalkeeper, but in my opinion it is the most fascinating role because, as they say, you have to be born a goalkeeper.
In this role you have an enormous responsibility, you can easily expose yourself to some embarrassment.
The football in this film, I want to say, is only the pretext in which this story is triggered.
It is the masculine of this story that Walter rejects as he rejects his father.
This is also why he doesn't like football." How much nostalgia is there for the Sixties? "Of course they were different times, but even today there are wonderful things that weren't there then.
There is nostalgia for an era in which there was innocence, but it is also there because we were young then." Directorial references? "I definitely feel the imprinting of Pupi Avati to whom I owe a lot, but there are many others" Is directing an experience worth repeating? "For now I'm enjoying the present - concludes Marcorè - but I believe there will be a second time".
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