VINCERE — ★★ — Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Filippo Timi; with English subtitles (Italian dialects); not rated, probable R (nudity, violence, sex, slurs, brief gore, vulgarity, brief drugs); Broadway Centre
The challenge to the makers of "Vincere" is monumental. How do you make a movie about Italian dictator Benito Mussolini — a decidedly nonsexy historical figure — sexy?
Their solution is to cast Filippo Timi — an actor who, fortunately, bears little resemblance to the real-life Mussolini — as an "idealized" version of the dictator.
They also got attractive actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno ("Love in the Time of Cholera") to play the role of Ida Galser, a woman who was rumored to have been his "secret lover."
That first casting move, though, is a misstep. It's jarring when we see "Tito" in newsreel footage, and it's revealed that he was a pretty unattractive person, both physically and in terms of his personality.
Luckily, this overlong biographical drama features a lively performance from Mezzogiorno. She stars as a woman who claimed to have met Mussolini when he was a still-struggling rabble-rouser.
In this version of events, the two fall in love, just prior to the start of World War I.
She's so in love with him that she goes so far as to sell her beauty salon to support her lover and his various activities.
Yet when Mussolini is seriously injured in World War I, he cuts off all ties with her and marries another woman, Rachele Guidi (Michela Cescon).
Worse still, when Galser makes a stink about the situation, he has her institutionalized. And he does likewise with their love child.
The film could have benefited from a more straightforward style of story telling and not co-screenwriter/director Marco Bellocchio's gimmicky, almost fantasy-like stylings.
And it's confusing to have Timi play the adult version of Galser and Mussolini's son, who is also named and referred to as Benito.
(It should be noted that he and Mezzogiorno do have believable chemistry, though.)
"Vincere" is not rated but would probably receive an R for full female and partial male nudity (as well as glimpses of nude statues and artwork), violent content and imagery (warfare, seen in newsreel footage, as well as rioting and violence against women), simulated sex and other sexual contact, derogatory language and slurs (some based on state of mind and some sexist in nature), brief bloody imagery, some suggestive language and references, and brief drug content (sedatives). Running time: 125 minutes.
e-mail: jeff@desnews.com