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I bring perhaps a different perspective to this film since I was closely fervent in Italian affairs while at the U.S. Set Department in the 1970′s and 1980′s. Many of the characters’ names were familiar to me and I met a few of them personally including Andreotti himself as Foreign Minister and Prime Ministers Fanfani, Craxi and Spadolini.
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That said, I found this film more allegorical than illuminating. I did delight in it especially visually, and the portrayals of the physical Andreotti and his laconic philosophical above-the-fray long-range perspectives and utterances and his quietly sardonic style were aesthetic. And those ears! A stout make-up job. Plus I enjoyed the refresher course in the Italian language. I could follow noteworthy of the film without the captions.
Beyond those aspects though, the film was too allegorical and hard to follow. And if it was so for me, I would imagine it would be even more so for the general American audience and even for many younger Italians. Collected, the rich visual imagery and cinematography brought relieve to me many memories of Italy itself from my service in her and about her at the Set Department.
“Il Divo” is new breed of biopic, a mixture of fact and fiction, whose power is in its visual and auditory style rather than in account. The subject is Italy’s seven-time Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, who was associated with every major political scandal in Italy for 50 years, frequently accused of slay and mayhem, and rumored to be the good master of the P2 Masonic Lodge. Some own him responsible for many of the 236 political murders that occurred in Italy between 1969 and 1984. Writer/director Paolo Sorrentino focuses on the early 1990s, from the beginning of Andreotti’s seventh government in 1991 until his trial in 1996, during which time he lost a deliver to become President and was undermined by Mafia turncoats who testified against him.
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Roger Ebert described “Il Divo” as “like a shadowy comedy version of The Godfather”. I can’t judge of a more gracious description. This is satire, though many of the events of the film actually happened. Andreotti (Toni Servillo) is almost a comically absurd character, in spite of the violence, and speaks about himself with an ironic tone. This is all the more astounding because Giulio Andreotti is composed living. The Italian political system is portrayed as farce. Andreotti is a laconic man, enigmatic and apparently self-consciously so. He is known for his lack of emotion, so Paul Sorrentino felt the need to introduce some into a character that might seem wooden otherwise. Andreotti’s preoccupation with the 1978 death of Aldo Moro, which troubles him in the film, is fictional as far as anyone knows.
Being uncommon with Italian politics, I don’t know what else has been fictionalized. What captivated me about “Il Divo” is that it is unusually cinematic. There is not a lot of dialogue, though Andreotti’s meetings with the members of his faction, the fast-talking Paolo Pomicino (Carlo Buccirosso), dumb Vittorio Shardella (Massimo Popolizio), and foolish Franco Evangelisti (Flavio Bucci), are darkly hilarious. The film lacks a strong myth thread but is visually bewitching. Luca Bigazzi’s camera creeps around. The eclectic gather is perfect. I was never definite what Giulio Andreotti wanted, unless it is “perpetuating nasty to guarantee well-behaved”, as he says, and “Il Divo” takes patience. But this is a exquisite and thoughtful film, even if it doesn’t try to go anywhere. In Italian with optional English subtitles.
The DVD (MPI 2009) : Bonus features include 11 deleted scenes (12 min) and 3 featurettes. “Making of Il Divo” (30 min) interviews writer/director Sorrentino about his advance, members of the cast, producers, cinematographer Luca Bigazzi, and composer Teho Teardo. “Special Effects Featurette” (7 min) interviews visual effects supervisor Nicola Sganga and shows some examples of effects former to change the weather, time of day, or in the many death scenes. In “Interview with Director Paolo Sorrentino” (12 min), the director talks about the character of Andreotti and making a film that is both fictional and right. English subtitles are available for the film and the bonus features.