IL DIVO (2008) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Paolo Sorrentino
Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto,
Giulio Bosetti, Flavio Bucci
Portrait of a real-life "Godfather," Italian politician Giulio Andreotti, who served seven terms as the country's prime minister in the '70s, '80s and '90s. As played by Toni Servillo, Andreotti does not look particularly formidable. Stiff, formal, impassive and categorically untelegenic, you wonder how he'd be elected to anything. But as an operator in the maze of Italian politics, he has no equal, knowing exactly when to grease a palm, call in a favor, make a veiled threat, or worse. He shrugs off his phenomenal success by claiming it's "the will of God," as if that could explain his uncanny ability to cling to power and stay out of prison, while his enemies, by "the will of God," end up dead. You'd need a degree in postwar Italian history to identify all the characters, or to make a stab at what's true here and what isn't. But if the movie's got it even half right, this guy could give Vito Corleone a run for his money. At 90, Andreotti's still serving in the Italian Senate, where he has a lifetime appointment. By "the will of God," of course.
