Il Divo (2009)

Strong and Moving!

Some things I liked some I did not.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Splendidly visual, Il Divo is anything but a biopic of Giulio Andreotti, an austere and prominent Italian politician, 25 times minister and 7 times Prime Minister between 1964 and 1989. It is more of a portrait, fragmented and elusive as they best portraits are; it also offers an unique view on politics and murder during the bonfire of vanities that were Italian politics at the near end of the 20th century.The only creature that can live long and prosper in a bonfire is a salamander, and that's precisely what Andreotti (Toni Sorvillo, extraordinary) looks and acts like. Devoid of any visible emotions save for his hand motions, translated to Fanny Ardant in a transient role by his devoted secretary, the Presidente (of the Council, not the Republic, and that's the problem) "doesn't succumb to lesser vices" but ice cream. He doesn't drink anything but water, he doesn't smoke, he is not cheating on his wife Livia (Anna Bonaiuto, first seen being bored during the blueprint for the bunga-bunga parties to come, during which the Finance ministry makes a fool of himself). Prone to migraines, he toasts with aspirin and read gialli in the Senate. He is as opaque as opaque can be before it gets dark.Andreotti is by all means a survivor and a loner, a condition emphasised by his constant crossing of gigantic halls of power, in which no one or nothing can come in his way but a Persian cat with vairon eyes. He is opinionated to the point of brilliance, once telling Pope John XXIII "Pardon me Your Holiness but you do not know anything about the Vatican". He has a dry sense of humour, the mere shadow of a smile touching Sorvillo's lips when he's asked the question "Have you ever danced?", to which he answers "All my life, Madam."His entourage, presented one by one at the movie beginning, is a clique of rather shady Christian Democrats, including a cardinal nicknamed "His Healthiness". When they congregate at Andreotti's, his secretary announce them by saying "Storm clouds are gathering", an excellent definition of what is happening. They plot their next moves, wishing but failing to have the Prime Minister elected President. They exchange jokes about past Popes. Andreotti hardly smiles. In a scene stupendous for the banality with which it suggests the growing chasm between him and his wive, they just hold hands watching TV, switching from a news program to a variety show. He doesn't look at her, lost in thought; she looks at his profile for a long while, searching for the smallest trace of the man she once married. She does not find anything.Last part of Il Divo deals with Andreotti's trials and tribulations. The trial of the century opens, based on his presumed links with Mafia boss Toto Riina (Enzo Rai, scary as hell). We know the two met because the event was shown earlier in the movie. Still, Andreotti is so convincing in his denial that one doubts what he just witnessed. Was it magical realism, like the scene in which a skateboard incongruously rolls through the Senate hallway, or was it history? It's impossible to say. Andreotti is an extra-terrestrial, a very cautious turtle carrying on him the weight of political decades, and you can feel every gram of it leadening, but never weakening his stance. The movie is a f***ing masterpiece.

We had missed Paolo Sorrentino's film when it was shown in its original commercial run. Having seen it recently, when it was shown on a cable channel, we realize what a loss it would have been, had we not seen it. The director and the star of the film, Toni Servillo, show us the life of an enigmatic man that has been at the center of controversy in his native Italy for many years.This is a politically charged film that is courageous enough to expose the corruption behind politics. Giulio Andreotti, is a man that on one hand, is deeply religious, while on the other hand, he has been involved with the Italian mafia, getting away with his involvement because the system that tried to bring him to justice was equally corrupt.The performance of Mr. Servillo is one of the best things in the Italian cinema in recent memory. His Andreotti is a man with high standing in the Italian Social Democrat party with enough ties to the catholic church and other factions in his country. A figure in Italian parliament, he has been able to survive all the political upheavals in his country for most of his life.Mr. Sorrentino's account on this fictional work, probably is closer to the truth behind this man that shows little emotion in his dealings with the events that surrounded his days as a central political figure. The splendid collaboration between Mr. Sorrentino and Mr. Servillo results in an intelligent film that goes behind the scenes of a system that baffles the mind.

Il Divo is a tremendous piece of style. The camera soars through complex settings in which countless people are being highly expressive in some way or another. Every other shot is in slow motion. Cuts never hide but outright snap as quickly as possible from shot to shot to shot. The soundtrack is rich with dynamic modern pop music. Captions are everywhere; some of them move, some of them inflexibly wait till the camera reaches a certain point in order to be legible, some are upside down, et. al. Sometimes, the camera calms down to focus on an actor doing something very interesting and moving, but those are comparatively less conspicuous.The film is a true story, and a widely known one in its home land, Italy, one about the corruption of power, the assault of religious guilt on an unrepentant conscience, the rise to excess and the beginning of an uncertain fall to the prospect of a soul's relieving punishment. It is a story that has been told for centuries, one that offers us no real surprises here, so instead it is awash in stylistic flourishes. That seems very vain and shallow, but such gesticulative hyperkinesis affords the film some very moving moments. Some are expository throwaways, which is just as well, but others are treated in that same manner, as mere fine points, when they betray epic stories all their own. There is also an effective amount of time devoted to the central character's fear of God's judgment, and whether or not he inflects it to take the place of life's chance occurrences or the existence of one's responsibility for his own choices.Il Divo is so pumped with testosterone, never slows down, always has something eye-popping, indeed often just distracting, to throw at us, and like a lot of masculine flaunting, it seems to compensate for a lack of something else. But that's not quite the case here. Yes, the film is all style. But the story is not lathered on top of it. It is the cloth with which all that showing off is done. The dialogue in itself is both plentiful and fancy. The way the characters talk to each other has an aphoristic form and a philosophical undertone. For instance, "I know I am an average man but I look around and see no giant." There is a lot of info-dumping with book-ending title cards and myriad captions among other avenues of squeezing out all facts and fine points, but as complicated as the plot is, and as quickly as it is developed in scenes like the almost whirlwind-speed Mafia meeting, the actors are particularly strong and all have the power to wrestle their scenes away from the clockwork narrative and have them stand out as their own beasts, sometimes through blazing emotional deliveries of exchanges, monologues and even soliloquys, and sometimes through simple emoting that winds up pushing all the stylized clutter to the edges of frame to function at just the right pitch to complement such facial expressions and halfway teardrops. I struggle to recall any other film in recent memory in which such seemingly insignificant characters have unraveled so briefly and brought me to tears with such feeling command.So obviously, the film is highly expressionistic, almost baroque. Toni Servillo's make-up job as Giulio Andreotti, the title figure, is very elaborate and the details of his ears, hair, glasses, facial lines and tightly wound upscale dress sense are screamingly defined and allow him to underplay the role to the point where he is almost an oil painting save for his sporadic jolts of tremendous emotional build-up. The food critic Anton Ego in Pixar's Ratatouille comes to mind. Not every actor here is endowed with this advantage, but they do all have emboldened distinguishing characteristics. Despite those few very touching moments and certain powerful images, often spectacle-driven but sometimes not, the brandishing nature of director Paolo Sorrentino's stylisic proficiency keeps us too distant from his real subjects and the heart of the matter. Regardless however, the actors and the prose they perform rebel against such oppression and do some intense brandishing of their own.

This is one of those movies where you need to be up for active entertainment (read: awake and willing to process data and moments quickly). For the very same reason some people give this movie bad reviews as they are upset that the Director (Sorrentino) does not bother with explaining the history of Italian Politics after World War II and the influence Andreotti had on this. If he had to do such for an unknown to understand the story line, the movie would be one hour longer or it would become a pointless exercise and most likely a tiring one for most of the audience. This movie is made for an Italian speaking audience with knowledge of Italian Politics - not a Hollywood blah blah movie.Personally, I was a little familiar with the background of Italian Politics but spent a significant amount of time after the first viewing to learn more about entities such as the P2 (Porpaganda due) lodge, Gladio (NATO "Stay behind" organisation), The main characters from the Christian Democrat party as well as a few gentlemen from the Island of Sicily. In light of this sin flood of information I watched the movie a second time and was frankly baffled by it's incredible way of telling such a complicated story in such short period of time.Speking only a bit Italian but coming from a non English mother tongue country I was able to understand many parts of the movie without subtitles. I am however used to reading subtitles of non-English movies, which might ruin the experience for people who are not used to such due to the speed of dialogues and the general amount of data released during the 110 minute high speed portray of much more than Il Divo Giulio himself - it is about Italy as a country...Long story short, if you appreciate Italian way of life, accept that the Mafia is something as part of their society (let it be Sicilian, Calabria or Napolitano), you enjoy style, class, quality, good food and music as well as the fact that things might just not be inside what it says on the tin then this is a movie for you. If you rather look for an easy digestible film after work, do not speak Italian and have no interest in reading subtitles, do not like ambiguity in scenes and do not like to put the movie together in your head afterwards - then this is certainly not a movie for you...If you do not know about Italian Politics and want to grasp this movie at first viewing read on the internet about Andreotti, Craxi and "the years of Lead" for 20 minutes before going to the Cinema.Enjoy.