Il Divo: Star power
It's the early 1990s, and perennial Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti (Toni Servillo) is stiffly attending a social event.
By Peter HowellMovie Critic
Fri., July 10, 2009timer3 min. read
"Have you ever danced, Premier?" an inviting woman says to him.
"My whole life, ma'am," Andreotti laconically replies.
We may not know the man, but we know the dance, as seen in the highly diverting and hugely controversial Il Divo, a biopic as wily as its subject.
While sketching the intricate life and affairs behind the granite countenance of his country's notorious veteran politician, writer/director Paolo Sorrentino paints a portrait of similar slippery politicos the world over. Just replace the name of any dodgy public figure for Andreotti and you've caught the film's essential message of how absolute power absolutely corrupts.
Sorrentino is mainly interested in the home audience, one that would need no introductions to a man, currently snoozing as a life senator, who alternately vexed and amused Italy for seven terms as prime minister in a chequered political career stretching back to 1947. Often accused and occasionally charged, Andreotti managed to avoid conviction and jail terms in every instance.
Those not versed in Italian politics will likely have trouble keeping up with Sorrentino's sweeping narrative, a prize winner at Cannes, which begins with a series of killings, set to an up-tempo pop tune, that rivals the final series of rubouts in The Godfather.
The filmmaker leaves us wondering – as his lawyers doubtless insisted he must – about suggestions of Andreotti's links to such high-profile Italian crimes as the assassination of political rival Aldo Moro and the suicide of Vatican banker Roberto Calvi. I've seen Il Divo twice and I'm still in the dark about many of its revelations and insinuations.
But Andreotti is so weirdly fascinating, it's more than enough to just watch him whirl. The film is titled for the man's most common nickname (Il Divo means male star), the others including – take a deep breath – the Sphinx, the Hunchback, the Black Pope, Beelzebub, the Fox and The First Letter of the Alphabet. They're not terms of endearment.
Despite possessing a face of absolutely flat affect – he could be the dull brother of cheese-loving Wallace from the Wallace & Gromit animated comedies – Andreotti somehow managed to worm his way into the grudging affections of a populace willing to tolerate his many peccadilloes.
Even his own long-time wife Livia (Anna Bonaiuto), although professing otherwise, seems not to know the interior life and backroom antics of a man so driven by demons real and imagined, we first see him as a human pin cushion, covered with acupuncture needles to control his chronic migraines.
He's also a man who professes to follow the will of God, yet who argues that evil deeds are sometimes necessary to achieve good ends: "God knows it, and I know it, too."
Facts and incidents pile up like Roman traffic as Il Divo roars on, but Sorrentino – ably assisted by the whimsical camera angles of lenser Luca Bigazzi – manages to keep the focus on the main figure of amusement and intrigue.
Only one character in the film has a greater force of will than Andreotti. It's the cat that blocks his way as he heads down a corridor to yet another devious encounter, in the film's most amusing scene.
Andreotti tells the feline to skedaddle, but the tabby just stares him down. Not even Il Divo can boss a cat.