Il Divo **** (2008, Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto, Giulio Bosetti) – Classic Movie Review 3294

Writer-director Paolo Sorrentino’s striking and informative, surreal biopic of controversial Italian politician Giulio Andreotti, showcases an uncanny, quite spooky performance by Toni Servillo as the nonogenarian ‘divine’ who was Italian prime minister seven times between 1972 and 1992 when scandal finally caught up with him.

Winner of the 2008 Cannes Grand Jury Prize, this is a brilliant dissection of Italy’s deep-rooted corruption, although the film’s denseness and complexity might make it tricky for non-Italians to follow.

Though the film is imaginatively made and engrossing, it is the star turn that makes it so special. Hump-backed, emotionless and seemingly stuffed, Servillo is quite astonishing, like a Madame Tussaud’s waxworks come to life, as the old bloke who seem to glide on hidden wheels rather than walk the corridors of power – and by the end you actually feel sorry for this monster as he faces the judiciary and his God.

This is an amazing film at a time when Italian cinema is in shocking decline. Servillo also stars in 2008’s other Italian masterwork Gomorra.

Andreotti walked out of a screening of the film. Born on January 14 1919, he died on May 6 2013, aged 94.

Sorrentino is also the film-maker of The Great Beauty [La grande bellezza] (2013) and Youth [La giovinezza] (2015).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3294

Link to home page for more reviews derekwinnert.com