In a nanosecond, and perhaps even less, while the beautiful young people of the “Giffoni Film Festival” around him revealed their excitement at having him there on stage, Aurelio De Laurentiis must have seen himself in that “range” – between eighteen and thirty years old – when he chose to become what he would later become. “Following in the footsteps of my father Luigi and my uncle Dino.” Giffoni is an enchanted world where, for the 55th time, people dream with their eyes open of a world of celluloid – and this time also of leather – and Aurelio De Laurentiis, who has proudly traversed these universes, bares himself, tells his story, hams it up with words, abuses them a little with hyperbole (?), and in any case dominates the stage for three quarters of an hour, maybe even more, as if it were the first half of an arthouse film or even a football match.

de laurentiis —  The man knows how to manipulate vocabulary for his own use and consumption. He sits up there comfortably, while his greeting to Lang (“welcome Noa”) appears on social media, then he slips into character and develops it. “Italian soccer is in crisis, politicians think that presidents are billionaires, yet they should know that 90% of clubs are in difficulty. It’s a European phenomenon, but also ours. Here we have a problem with the Bossi-Fini law of 2001. But Bossi and Fini are no longer around. And in any case, we are prevented from having a higher number of non-EU players, unlike other countries. Then they say that 37-year-olds are playing instead of 20-year-olds, who are the future. It’s normal that the national team is in trouble. We need to get off our asses and change, otherwise in a couple of years we risk disappearing, because Serie B is in a coma, Serie A can’t downsize, and costs are skyrocketing. And here it seems that institutions are waging war on soccer.” But ‘interested’ voices rise from the audience, because even at the ‘Giffoni Film Festival’ there are Neapolitan hearts beating: ‘As for the stadium, I imagine it will be ready in three years. For the sports center, I visited 25 areas, but here there are extreme situations everywhere, where you don’t find strange spills, you discover that there is water. Now I’ve found a 20-hectare plot, but I have to check the logistics and transport links. As for the Scudetto, we’ve shown that a club with a hundred employees can do it, unlike those with five or six hundred. We’ve become our own producers, with our own jerseys, and yesterday we made half a million euros in a day on the web. To win the Champions League? Well, you need various factors, coincidences, the schedule, the players’ health. In any case, we will always be competitive at all levels.“ And to be himself, with his free-wheeling language, let’s say unconventional. ”Artificial intelligence? It turns me on… I fuck it every second.” The curtain falls (amid smiles).