Giulio Andreotti, the seven-time prime minister of Italy, has one take on his story told here in most entertaining fashion by director Paolo Sorrentino and actor Toni Servillo (Gomorra). Andreotti, still alive and appointed senator-for-life, has been tried, convicted, and acquitted many times for the murders and disappearances of rivals, and being Italian, perhaps he knows his worthy antecedents – the Borgias, Sforzas, and Medicis.

Sorrentino’s method here is operatically stylized – like a cross between Scorsese and Visconti – and I smiled with delight from beginning to end. I also can’t stop thinking that Mozart would have loved the whole spectacle, what with his love of Italian opera, stage movement, and general joie de vivre – perhaps as a natural follow-up to Don Giovanni. Really, would the story have been nearly as interesting if shot as a documentary or directed in standard Hollywood docudrama fashion?

Nicknamed The Hunchback, Beelzebub, or, best of all, The Black Pope, Andreotti seemingly has but one vice – to wield power, without obstacles – he appears to eschew all the others normally associated with the trappings of power. And that power is wielded regularly, and mercilessly, in a wild stream of contemporary Italian politics that is impossible to assimilate without being an expert – but don’t worry too much, just sit back and enjoy the visual spectacle. – [DVD]

Biography/Drama

Not Rated

DVD Release Date: 10/27/09

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