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VINCERE is a compelling drama based on the littleknown story of Benito Mussolinis first wife. Ida Dalsar (Giovanno Mezzogiorno) and Mussolini (Filippo Timi) begin their liaison in 1914; she is a well-to-do beauty salon owner and he is an impoverished young Socialist and union activist. When Ida sells all her possessions to fund her lover's new newspaper, the rise of Fascism is set into play. VINCERE is a gripping film that creates a highly cinematic oratorio of enormous emotional force.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
The relationship between the Italian people and its political leaders is a complicated one that has been tackled recently by a number of Italian filmmakers, resulting in films as diverse as Paolo Sorrentino's Il Divo on Giulio Andreotti and Nanni Moretti's satire on Silvio Berlusconi in The Caiman. Perhaps the greatest and most political of modern-day Italian directors, Marco Bellocchio takes on arguably an even more complex subject in Vincere, one whose relationship with the Italian people is even more difficult to define - that of Benito Mussolini.
Typically however, from the director who found poetic resonance in the 1978 kidnapping and murder of elder statesman Aldo Moro by members of the Red Brigade in Good Morning, Night (Buongiorno, notte), Vincere is far from a straightforward biopic. Bellocchio approaches his subject from a most unconventional angle, using the buried episode of Mussolini's secret first marriage to Ida Dalser, a marriage that would result in the birth of a child - unacknowledged by Mussolini - and the incarceration of Dalser in an insane asylum as Mussolini's rise to power called for a certain rewriting of his personal history. In their marriage, Bellocchio manages to examine the complicated nature of relationships between Italian men and women, and through it, say much about the nature of power in a wider historical and political context.
That still makes Vincere sound fairly conventional when in reality the film is much more complex in its structure and visual language. The relationship between Dalser and the dark, silent, forceful young Mussolini can seem as unfathomable as his move from militant socialism to fascism, and Bellocchio doesn't make it easy for the viewer to make sense of the contradictions, schizophrenically dividing the film in stylistic terms, the tall, dark and handsome Filippo Timi disappearing in the first half to be replaced by documentary footage of the real Mussolini, short, fat, ugly and bald in the second half. It makes no sense unless you consider what you are viewing is through the eyes of a young woman in the heightened emotional state of love in the earlier part, and betrayal in second.
It's Giovanna Mezzogiorno's performance that holds this together, preventing the film slipping over into empty stylistic excess (like Sorrentino's Il Divo) by underpinning it with strong meaningful human sentiments in her remarkably sensitive reading of Dalser. Whatever one makes of this puzzle of a film, which is extremely complicated in its range of political and cultural references (such as the way the Futurism art movement is integrated into the fabric of the film itself), and in what it says about the nature of the Italian people, Dalser's experience and Mezzagiorno's performance ensures that at the very least, Vincere presents a fascinating episode in recent political history through a touching portrait of a woman's blind love for a dangerous man.
Typically however, from the director who found poetic resonance in the 1978 kidnapping and murder of elder statesman Aldo Moro by members of the Red Brigade in Good Morning, Night (Buongiorno, notte), Vincere is far from a straightforward biopic. Bellocchio approaches his subject from a most unconventional angle, using the buried episode of Mussolini's secret first marriage to Ida Dalser, a marriage that would result in the birth of a child - unacknowledged by Mussolini - and the incarceration of Dalser in an insane asylum as Mussolini's rise to power called for a certain rewriting of his personal history. In their marriage, Bellocchio manages to examine the complicated nature of relationships between Italian men and women, and through it, say much about the nature of power in a wider historical and political context.
That still makes Vincere sound fairly conventional when in reality the film is much more complex in its structure and visual language. The relationship between Dalser and the dark, silent, forceful young Mussolini can seem as unfathomable as his move from militant socialism to fascism, and Bellocchio doesn't make it easy for the viewer to make sense of the contradictions, schizophrenically dividing the film in stylistic terms, the tall, dark and handsome Filippo Timi disappearing in the first half to be replaced by documentary footage of the real Mussolini, short, fat, ugly and bald in the second half. It makes no sense unless you consider what you are viewing is through the eyes of a young woman in the heightened emotional state of love in the earlier part, and betrayal in second.
It's Giovanna Mezzogiorno's performance that holds this together, preventing the film slipping over into empty stylistic excess (like Sorrentino's Il Divo) by underpinning it with strong meaningful human sentiments in her remarkably sensitive reading of Dalser. Whatever one makes of this puzzle of a film, which is extremely complicated in its range of political and cultural references (such as the way the Futurism art movement is integrated into the fabric of the film itself), and in what it says about the nature of the Italian people, Dalser's experience and Mezzagiorno's performance ensures that at the very least, Vincere presents a fascinating episode in recent political history through a touching portrait of a woman's blind love for a dangerous man.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
Through the struggle of this woman, Vincere is not only a critique of fascism and the dictatorship of Mussolini.. It is too a real hymn to cinema as a medium conveying meaning in an alienated world. In this point of view, it is by itself an act of resistance, in a world invaded by advertisements, and whose Imaginary is colonized by the society of the spectacle.
Bellocchio offers us an operatic tour de force. Performance by both actors is exceptionnal, but especially from Giovanna Mezzogiorno, amazingly inhabited in the role of her young career, on par with Falconetti in Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc. It is a performance and a movie that would indeniably have deserved more prizes, had Cannes 2009 jury been fair, or had Italy selected it as the Italian candidate for the 2010 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Movie, instead of a more commercial one.
Bellocchio offers us an operatic tour de force. Performance by both actors is exceptionnal, but especially from Giovanna Mezzogiorno, amazingly inhabited in the role of her young career, on par with Falconetti in Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc. It is a performance and a movie that would indeniably have deserved more prizes, had Cannes 2009 jury been fair, or had Italy selected it as the Italian candidate for the 2010 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Movie, instead of a more commercial one.
Format:DVD
I'm afraid to say that I'd not encountered Italian director Marco Bellochio or his work before and bought this DVD as it was part of 2 for £10 offer and it looked the most interesting the shop had.
I wasn't disappointed but would say that for most viewers, myself included, that it's the human story here that holds most interest. I'm not an expert in, nor wish to know the exact history surrounding its background, except, the fact that we are dealing with an infamous Italian Fascist leader and his first son and wife. These details are essential and placing them in a timeframe via newsreels is useful.
It may be that the Italians needed a film themselves about this obviously dark aberration in their home history and I guess that it does that satisfactorily, though I'm no position to know as to how accurate it is.
I, for one didn't feel it too long; I was soon aware that one & 3/4 hours had been chalked up, for instance. Giovanna Mezzogiorno puts in a magnificent and honest performance as the rejected mother and wife and Filippo Timi makes a fair stab as a young Mussolini. The film has a great, semi-operatic score that's always in tune with the emotions and turmoils and helps to sweep proceedings along. The cinematography too is very good, suitably moody and majestic.
Incarceration into decades of mental institutions, presumably on the order of Mussolini and the Party, a sane and healthy Ida Dalser fights tooth and nail to see her son again and for her very freedom. In a perpetual ritual of having her silenced she tries to keep hold of her dignity and sanity and tries any means possible to aid her, except she will not deny that she is wife of Mussolini, who is now "saving Italy" (and is having more important things to do than be troubled by a deluded mad-woman).
I cannot think how it could be greatly improved and was a good, not great film, that tells a story that does not touch me in the historical sense but as a human one, certainly does.
I wasn't disappointed but would say that for most viewers, myself included, that it's the human story here that holds most interest. I'm not an expert in, nor wish to know the exact history surrounding its background, except, the fact that we are dealing with an infamous Italian Fascist leader and his first son and wife. These details are essential and placing them in a timeframe via newsreels is useful.
It may be that the Italians needed a film themselves about this obviously dark aberration in their home history and I guess that it does that satisfactorily, though I'm no position to know as to how accurate it is.
I, for one didn't feel it too long; I was soon aware that one & 3/4 hours had been chalked up, for instance. Giovanna Mezzogiorno puts in a magnificent and honest performance as the rejected mother and wife and Filippo Timi makes a fair stab as a young Mussolini. The film has a great, semi-operatic score that's always in tune with the emotions and turmoils and helps to sweep proceedings along. The cinematography too is very good, suitably moody and majestic.
Incarceration into decades of mental institutions, presumably on the order of Mussolini and the Party, a sane and healthy Ida Dalser fights tooth and nail to see her son again and for her very freedom. In a perpetual ritual of having her silenced she tries to keep hold of her dignity and sanity and tries any means possible to aid her, except she will not deny that she is wife of Mussolini, who is now "saving Italy" (and is having more important things to do than be troubled by a deluded mad-woman).
I cannot think how it could be greatly improved and was a good, not great film, that tells a story that does not touch me in the historical sense but as a human one, certainly does.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
For me this is good Bellocchio, not great. But that's still a lot.
Some amazing, poetic imagery, a rich, almost operatic score, and a
hyper-emotional yet always grounded lead performance by Giovanna
Mezzogiomo make this film work. Read more
hyper-emotional yet always grounded lead performance by Giovanna
Mezzogiomo make this film work. Read more
Published 2 months ago by K. Gordon
Mussolini's secret life revealed in an arty, washy and self indulged...
Italy, 1900's, and a moustachioed Mussolini's heated relationship with first wife Dasler is the theme. Read more
Published 10 months ago by T. BROOKES
Disappointing
I was really looking forward to watching this as I love Italian history, but found it disappointing. It was not even that great historically. Read more
Published 14 months ago by G. H. Fraser-sampson
Excellent and enlighting
Such a great film with splendid juxtaposition of old war footage and the fillm scenes. Historically interesting as well as an emotional journey.
Buy the film and watch
Buy the film and watch
Published 16 months ago by DG Wing
Young Mussolini and the lover he betrayed
Veteran director Marco Bellocchio films this (for the most part) entertaining if tragic story of Benito Mussollini's alleged first wife, one Ida Dalser, punctuating the story with... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Andres C. Salama
Good value
At that price it was very good value and an interesting film in it's own right.
Published 19 months ago by John Bray
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