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Movies & TV

Il Divo

IL DIVO (Mongrel, 2008) D: Paolo Sorrentino, w/ Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto. Rating: NNNN DVD package: n/a Rating: NNNN


Giulio Andreotti, born in Rome, 1919, sat in the Italian Parliament continuously from 1946 to 1991, when he was appointed senator for life. He’s been prime minister three times. In 1999, with his Christian Democrat party mired in scandal, he was accused of being tied to the Mafia and complicit in the kidnapping and subsequent murder in 1978 of then prime minister Aldo Moro, and of numerous other murders, including that of banker Roberto Calvi and journalist Mino Pecorelli. Through it all, Andreotti remained an enigma.

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Writer/director Paolo Sorrentino sets out to explore the man behind the public sphinx with a mix of fact and fiction. Some of his episodes and Andreotti’s utterances are a matter of public record others can only have been imagined.

Toni Servillo makes it all plausible and chilling. His Andreotti glides like Murnau’s Nosferatu through scenes with his cronies, his wife, his constituents, his priest, Mafia leaders, at work, at parties and alone. Except for one eruption aimed directly at the camera, he’s quiet, emotionless and passive – in this world but not of it. He lives and breathes politics, but seems as indifferent to power as to his lavish surroundings.

It’s as complex and compelling a character study as I’ve seen, and I’m glad there’s no commentary for Sorrentino to explain the man to us. A doc on the scandals would have helped, though. The details aren’t really necessary to enjoy the movie, but they would have helped clarify matters.

EXTRAS Widescreen. Italian, French audio. English, French subtitles.

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