Paolo Sorrentino after the Oscars: «Will Smith’s slap? I was smoking “

Paolo Sorrentino connects via Zoom with the Italian press from Los Angeles after spending a night that you will take home. Sure won’t pack the Oscar like eight years ago for The great beauty, but he says he is satisfied. “Being in the five is already a victory”, he says, “It was the hand of God it is a small film that should have remained small and instead has done much more than we could have imagined ».

In a few hours our director will return to his Naples after six months of promotional campaign. “I want to rest a little and then think about the new film, calmly “, he says,” I chase good stories and where I find a good story I’ll go there. ” What will be his next project is not known: Mob Girl with Jennifer Lawrence? Maybe yes, maybe no, “we’ll see which windows open.”

Returning to the night of the Oscars Sorrentino and his travel companions walked the red carpet with a blue rosette that pointed to Ukraine. “It seemed right to me, the war is less felt here, perhaps it is a question of distance », comments the director. The fact is, “it wasn’t exactly the ideal time to go to the Oscars, was embarrassed with a war in progress ».

Compared to eight years ago, Sorrentino experienced the evening in a less attractive way, “it seemed like a subdued edition compared to the past, maybe it was the effect of the pandemic or maybe it’s just a physiological question: there are years in which films are disruptive and years not ». And if the first time at the Oscars it was amazement that accompanied him, this year “I look at things with greater detachment and irony”, he says, “I enjoyed seeing what made me smile. One day I will write it in a book ».

As for the statuette delivered to Drive My Car he declares: «I felt it, it was in the air, he deserved it», while in place of the absolute winner The signs of the heart (QUEUE) Paolo Sorrentino would have rewarded Licorice Pizza by Paul Thomas Anderson: “It was my favorite movie.”

On the now famous slap of Will Smith to Chris Rock our director has nothing to say, on the contrary, he didn’t really see that gesture: “I was in a corner smoking at that moment”, he explains, “they told me about it and in any case I mind my own business, everyone gives the slaps they want. It does not seem to me the case to intervene on the matters of others ».