The Referee (L’arbitro)

It’s probably not a good thing for a movie critic to admit that a film left you baffled, but that’s the case with the Italian film, “The Referee” (“L’arbitro”). It’s a sumptuous cinematic experience, the story of Italy’s obsession with soccer – sorry, football – shot in gorgeous black-and-white.

I’m just not quite sure what it’s all about. At first glance it appears to be a life-affirming, upbeat comedy about the idiosyncrasies and colorful personalities of a remote pastoral community – think “The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain” with more wine and pasta. But then it morphs into a dark and dreary exploration of the underbelly of the European professional football league, with an upstanding referee brought low by his own quest for glory.

For nearly the entire length of the film, there are two parallel storylines that never intersect – or even have much to do with each other, other than involving football. Actually, there’s a discomfiting third, about an antagonism between a sheepherder and a young guy who kills one of his lambs, that doesn’t seem to have much do with anything else.

So, in short: I liked a lot of things about “The Referee,” written by Paola Zucca and Barbara Alberti and directed by Zucca, without being able to endorse the whole.

The bulk of the tale is about a rivalry between two amateur teams in Sardinia: one the wealthy, high-handed champions and the other the lowly, working-class bottom-dwellers. But then Matzutzi (Jacopo Cullin), who left the town as a boy when his family moved to Argentina, returns home and becomes the star of the underdogs, who start to win.

On the flip side of the narrative is Cruciani (Stefano Accorsi), aka “The Prince,” a promising young referee known for fiercely protecting the integrity of the game, as well as being something of a showboat. He’s never been given a chance to officiate the championship round, and ingratiates himself with certain parties – including a fast-talking huckster named Candido (Marco Messeri) – to get his shot.

There’s a lot of football in “The Referee,” and I’ll confess my staggering indifference to the sport. There is perhaps no other game with such a yawning gulf between its depiction on film, where ball and bodies are constantly on the move, with how it is actually played in real life.

There’s also a halfhearted romance between Matzutzi and Miranda (Geppi Cucciari), the daughter of his team’s coach, who happens to be blind. Somehow, he always knows just when to complain to the referee, or put in a key substitution.

I liked the goofy parts of “The Referee,” and I liked the dour stuff, too, but never could quite square how they go together.

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