‘El Pibe de Oro’.
Beats ‘Goldenballs’.THE OPENING OF Diego Maradona
cuts right to the chase: with a lo-fi set-
piece of the footballer driving through
Naples the day he signed for the club
— the high point of his galloping,
giddying rise in the beautiful game. But, as
becomes clear: not everything about the
game, or those who play it, is beautiful.
Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia
has established his not-insignificant skill at
revealing the truth about fame and the
individuals that pay the greatest price.
Specifically what happens when the gap
between their public and private selves
threatens to swallow them whole. First
with his films about Ayrton Senna and
Amy Winehouse, Senna and Amy, and now
with new documentary Diego Maradona.
It’s a traditional, by-the-numbers arc
in many respects: poor boy from the
slums to millionaire sportsman via the
salvation found at the end of his feet. The
major difference on his third outing: the
subject is still very much alive.
The film has arguably more in
common with Senna than Amy, with a
narrative backbone erected from public
footage and interviews offering a narration.
You see Maradona on the pitch, at parties,
enduring loud, chaotic press conferences
with journalists jeering in front and fans
screaming overhead. You follow him
through his troubled start at Barcelona, to
the heart of the film: his life in Italy, where
he achieved a god-like status; a verging-on-
unbearable mania erupting around him.
The glory he hungered for — it’s clear — is
both the best and worst thing that could
have ever happened to him.
The picture Kapadia paints is pin-
sharp: the unimaginable strain of a very
unreal life on a very normal man. It’s clear
how his fall from grace, when it came, could
never have been anything but brutal. And
while the genius on the grass is clear, what
is less clear is what happens off the pitch.
Kapadia had access to 500 hours
of never-before-seen footage from
Maradona’s personal archive but still,
it feels underused and narratively
slight — little flesh being added to the
bones. Maradona’s private world, true,
innermost feelings, only briefly coming to
the fore. There are quick flashes of the
strain and pain that either turned him
onto drugs or accelerated his descent; that
led him into the arms of the local Mafia,
that saw him deny his own son.
And though Maradona is interviewed,
he is unable to really speak to a deeper
personal truth; to offer the texture you so
desperately want. This is, after all, a man
who, post the 1990 Argentina versus Italy
World Cup match in Naples, was hated by
pretty much an entire country. One that
had arguably given him everything. There’s
a little more substance offered by his ex-
wife, whose interview fills in a few blanks.
Still, the final act, though nothing
new, is brief and devastating —
Maradona physically, emotionally, a
shadow of himself. The tragedy is clear
and keenly felt.
The result is impressive filmmaking,
with the usual precision and intelligence
of editing. But you never truly get to who
Maradona is. He comes into focus and
recedes again, leaving you with a full picture
of the myth, if not the man. TERRI WHITEVERDICT A compelling, tragic life of
gangsters, glory, goal-scoring and
addiction — told with flair, if not with
full substance, by a master storyteller.DIEGO MARADONA
DIRECTOR Asif Kapadia
CAST Diego Maradona
PLOT How a poor Argentinian boy became
Diego Maradona — one of the greatest and
most controversial footballers of the 1980s.
It’s a saga with it all: women, drugs, fame
and despair. But does it have anything new
to add to a story the world knows so well?
OUT 25 JULY
RATED M / 130 MINS
HHHH
MYSTIFY: MICHAEL HUTCHENCE
HHHH
RATED MA15+ / OUT NOW / 108 MINS
DIRECTOR Richard Lowenstein
CAST Michael Hutchence, Kylie
Minogue, Helena Christensen, BonoFROM HIS EARLY days as a new
sensation on the Sydney band circuit to
the tragic circumstances of his untimely
death, Mystify: Michael Hutchence
focuses on a brilliant life lived under the
harsh glare of the spotlight, a life full of
stratospheric heights and distressing,
soul crushing lows.
In the late-’80s and early-’90s INXS
had the world in their hands. The band’s
albums Kick and X had topped charts
around the globe. In contrast, by 1997
Hutchence was dealing with depression
and struggling with his place in a rock
world that no longer saw his band as
relevant, especially after being called a
“has been” by Oasis’ Noel Gallagher on
stage at the Brit Awards. And then
there was his increasingly complex
relationship with British pop TV
presenter Paula Yates that played out in
front of the world’s media. Much to
Hutchence’s dismay, he became more
famous for his private life than his art.
The enigmatic frontman’s friend
and colleague Richard Lowenstein was
the perfect choice to take the
directorial reins for this documentary
having a history with the band helming
music videos for many of INXS’ biggest
hits including ‘Listen Like Thieves’,
‘Need You Tonight’ and ‘Bitter Tears’, as
well as directing Hutchence in the 1986
lo-fi grunge fest Dogs In Space.
Lowenstein has sourced an
astonishing collection of footage here,
from widescreen images of INXS
conquering the world’s stadiums to
grainy home movies and back-stage
escapades. The narrative is driven by a
series of audio interviews including
Hutchence’s fellow band members, his
family and many of his girlfriends
including Helena Christensen and a
candid Kylie Minogue who provides
Lowenstein with never before seen
footage of the young couple.
What shines through in this
poignant rockumentary is the heart of
a passionate artist with an insatiable
curiosity for life, making Mystify an
even more emotional experience.
Hutchence left behind an undeniable
body of work that will live forever.
In your face, Noel Gallagher.
DAVID MICHAEL BROWN