Game, set, and match for Tudor Giurgiu, Cristian Pascariu, and Tudor D. Popescu, who co-direct Nasty, a pleasingly hagiographic portrait of Romanian tennis icon Ilie Năstase. What fun tennis must have been in the 1970s, as it was on the turn from a knockabout sport into the sharp-footed profession it is today. Năstase and his contemporaries brought finesse and genius to the game, but tennis hadn’t yet been fully corrupted by corporate greed and mechanical elite athleticism. These players were hardworking and hard-partying in equal measure, and Năstase was a key ringleader for the frivolity, dating models, and canoodling on the mattresses at Studio 54.
He was also the sport’s chief antagonist a generation before John McEnroe took the mantle. Arguing with his fellow players and with the umpires. But he never questioned them when their calls were right, he insists, in one of the rare modern interview clips with Năstase himself. “McEnroe did, but not me,” he says, without a hint of his trademark irony.
There’s no doubt that the world of tennis has been forever changed by the huge injections of cash that have followed Năstase’s generation of players. The tour of the 1970s was complicated by geopolitics and fractious finances, but it brought the players closer. On the court, he would spar with his fellow countryman and doubles partner Ion Țiriac when they went head to head. Then they’d retire to some cheap motel they were sharing and hit the town.
In the doc, McEnroe recalls a particularly tense match between himself, the young upstart, and Năstase, an established player who had become the first world number one on the institution of the ATP rankings. Năstase’s frequent outbursts and arguments had frustrated McEnroe into a rage. He retired to the locker room ready to throw fists at the Romanian, who confronted him by saying, “Right, where are we going to dinner? I’ve met these two girls…”
Romania’s Ilie Nastase complains of racket tension during his Men’s Singles final match at Wimbledon against American’s Stan Smith in 1972.
PA Images via Getty
Such japes, but if Nasty requests a let, it’s on the less friendly side of such a wild era. Năstase has a nickname for everyone on the tour—the only person, McEnroe says, allowed to call him ‘Macaroni’—but his nickname for American legend Arthur Ashe is “Negroni”. Later, at a press conference, Năstase is caught on a hot mic speculating about the color of Serena Williams’ unborn child. “Chocolate with milk?” he wonders, in an era in which he should know better. Williams issued a justifiably incendiary statement at the time. She isn’t called upon for her thoughts today, and Ashe, who died in 1993, can only speak in contemporaneous interview footage. Instead, players with something in common, like Rosie Casels, Stan Smith, and Billie Jean King, defend their friend; it’s all just Ilie being Ilie. “I know the essence of who he is,” says King, “and he’s got a good heart.” Năstase himself, who was interviewed for the doc, doesn’t comment.
There’s no doubt that Năstase did a lot of good for the sport, bringing life to the game and grace to the court; at least when he was actually hitting balls. Many of the era’s icons—and a few more modern players like Rafa Nadal—show up to praise his warmth and generosity to players in need. Năstase and Țiriac were global ambassadors for Romania during the Ceaușescu era, and helped bring the Davis Cup to the country while the Iron Curtain was still down. All very noble endeavors, but Nasty would rather celebrate them than interrogate the rougher side of the star’s personality. It’s not as if the film attempts to get away with disregarding that side of him entirely, but showing it and then quickly excusing it isn’t far off.
Tennis is blockbuster business today, and there are certainly aspects of the era depicted by Nasty that modern fans might long for. The players then, “were much more human,” says an Italian sports commentator in the movie. “Now, they’re more machine.” Nasty works better as a portrait of a moment in tennis history than it does as a portrait of the man of its title. The game is faster now, and more polished. The athleticism is tuned to degrees that have become balletic. But it might have been a more enjoyable sport then, and Nasty gives us that sense, even if its focus is on the era’s clown prince. Tales of the tours of the 70s and 80s, as told by Boris Becker, Björn Borg, Jimmy Connors and many more, including the aforementioned players, are a delight. Nasty is an infinitely watchable pop doc, but it might have dug a little deeper here and there.
Title: Nasty
Festival: Cannes Film Festival (Special Screenings)
Distributor: HBO & Max (Worldwide)
Release Date: May 24, 2024 (Worldwide)
Directors: Tudor Giurgiu, Cristian Pascariu, and Tudor D. Popescu
Writers: Tudor Giurgiu & Cristian Pascariu
Running time: 1 hr, 44 min
