VINCERE .World Cinema

Once considered a filmmaker whose best works (FISTS IN THE POCKET, 1965; CHINA IS NEAR, 1967) were in t he post, Marco Bellocchio hos been on a roll during the past seven years. But even triumphs including MY MOTHER’S SMILE (2002), GOOD MORNING, NIGHT (2003) and THE WEDDING DIRECTOR (2007) hardly prepare viewers for the stunning theatricality and sheer audacity of this operatic study of the rise and fall of Benito Mussolini (Filippo Timi), told through the eyes of his tragic mistress Ida Dolser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and their son. From the moment young Mussolini the Socialist appears on screen, daring God to strike him dead, t he film announces itself as a biopic of rare bravery, paralleling Mussolini’s political opportunism with his private life, as he disposes of unwanted family with the some ease as he does his enemies. Too often depicted in the movies as Hitler’s clown prince, this Mussolini brought to life through Bellocchio’s inventive use of newsreel footage-emerges as a full-blown monster.