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«The best», tell me who Marco Pantani was

«Even if they are suffering things, I am pleased to talk about Marco. It also makes me smile. I’m fine when I talk about Marco. I still see it here. Before giving home to her niece, I always came here and smelled her perfume, I talked to her. It was my doctor who said: “Give her the Tonina house, you’ll be better too”. And he was right ». Suffering is the key word among those said by the mother of Marco Pantani. It has always been a matter of suffering for the cyclist from Romagna. To the journalist Gianni Mura who asked him why he was going so fast uphill he replied: «To shorten my agony».

It also tells that agony The best. Marco Pantani, a film directed by Paolo Santolini, produced by Okta Film with Rai Cinema, in collaboration with the Marco Pantani Foundation and distributed in cinemas by Nexo Digital, on 18, 19 and 20 October.

There is silence and noise. All the words present are silent, those of today, the memory, the comment. It is all noise and crowds that emerge from the images of the period. Marco is told by friends, fans and family members. “He was a charismatic patacca.” “Alone, defenseless and unprotected”. “He had a lot of pride.” «The flame had gone out. There was another light in his eyes. ‘ These are words that tell of an abyss: pride and charisma against loneliness. It is the noise of the before and the silence of the after. The tragic turning point is the stop a Madonna of Campiglio in the Giro d’Italia that the Pirate was winning and from which he was excluded due to the hematocrit level beyond the norm.

“It’s a film that shows how Marco really was,” said the mother at the presentation, “I’m always fighting for whatever truth it is, not for illusions”. There is the pride of seeing the child still loved and recognized, but there is also having the child in the heart, not the cyclist. “I like all the pictures where he’s not dressed as a cyclist.” It is a family that speaks. The niece who now lives in her house: “The first few nights I didn’t sleep, but I still use her mattress.” The sister: «My brother was too much of everyone. When he returned, however, he came to eat the flatbread with sausage and onion. At his death everyone is closed in on himself and we split a bit as a family ».

It is not meant to be just a tribute and it is not an investigation. It is a story of various humanity with Marco Pantani and his humanity at the center: “I believe in values ​​and in men, being wounded in feelings is more important than in the physical”.

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This article is published in issue 18 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until April 30, 2024. Join your hands proudly.

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