It took five minutes of fact checking after watching Il Divo to find that this docudrama is as much “docu” as it is “drama”, and while it may seem like the movie is one big conspiracy theory, this amazing story of Italian politics is not a piece of fiction. This is Italy’s Watergate – with a lot more blood – and it makes for a shocking and compelling movie.
The film’s subject,92 year Giulio Andreotti, the seven time Italian prime minister (Richard Nixonesque in more ways than one), walked out of the movie’s premier. I might be pissed off too, if a movie “revealed” what I had to say in a confessional. In the movie he says that he talks to priests and not God because -“I preti votano, Dio no” – “Priests vote but God doesn’t.”
Was the Prime Minister incredibly unlucky or undeniably guilty? – that is this film’s question, because in Andreotti’s 20 some years in office, there were a whole bunch of “unfortunate” assassinations and killings made to look like suicides – people that were creating problems for the Christian Democratic Party. According to the movie, the only thing that really bothered Andreotti was the abduction and murder of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades in 1978. Andreotti infamously refused to negotiate with the terrorists and was accused of wanting Moro dead. That’s what his character said he’d felt remorse for, but I’m sure that the real thorn in the real prime minister’s side was his 22 year prison conviction (overturned) for his alleged Mafia connections.
Written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, this movie is something that a lot of Italian movies are not – slick and stylish with a sense of irony that seems unimportant to many Italian filmmakers. It’s hilarious, it’s smart, and for a movie about a bunch of pompous stuffed shirts it is visually intense and the score is exhilarating.
I can’t say enough about Tony Servillo – this guy is one outstanding actor and his deadpan portrayal of Andreotti puts him on the level of the best American actors. Watch his transformation into the hunched, sinister Andreotti and them watch him play the shady businessman in Gomorra – the characters couldn’t be any more different and yet Servillo is just perfect in both roles.
Two thumbs up, four stars, I don’t rate movies but if I did this would get my highest rating. It won the Jury Prize at Cannes, many David di Donatello awards, and Toni Servillo won the European Film Award for best actor.
2008 -Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Writer: Paolo Sorrentino
Stars: Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto and Giulio Bosetti
I Love Italian Everything 