Il Divo – Der Göttliche (2008)

Il Divo – Der Göttliche: Directed by Paolo Sorrentino. With Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto, Giulio Bosetti, Flavio Bucci. The story of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti, who has served as Prime Minister of Italy seven times since the restoration of democracy in 1946.

“Giulio Andreotti can be seen as both the precursor to, and the antithesis of, Silvio Belusconi: an Italian politician with his fingers on every lever that led to power, accused of everything but convicted of nothing, and yet peculiarly devoid of conventional charisma. A sense of a particularity, of a man who had become nothing beyond a carefully constructed defence of his own behaviour, was nicely captured in Tim Parksu0026#39; fictional work u0026#39;Destinyu0026#39;; and we get the same feeling in u0026#39;Il Divou0026#39;, a biopic with an extraordinary performance Toni Sevillo by in the lead role. What neither offer is definitive, or even speculative, resolution of the enigma and his actions; just a chilling yet plausible portrait of the man. Yet without providing clear answers, something else must provide the story. In Parksu0026#39; book, Andreotti was a bit part; in the film, thereu0026#39;s no other narrative, and sometimes the direction feels a little too heavy, overdone perhaps because there isnu0026#39;t a smooth tale holding things together. And the music on the soundtrack seems deliberately incongruous, thrown into the mix to provide some variation in tone that would otherwise have been lacking. But Servillou0026#39;s performance more than compensates; it will lead you wanting the same answers, one suspects, that everyone has wanted from Andreotti for a long long time.”