Sex, lies and dictatorship

It's not often that the failings of fascism are told through romantic melodrama. But that's precisely what director Marco Bellocchio offers us with "Vincere": a tragedy in which Italy's rise and fall are synonymous with Benito Mussolini's seduction and desertion of his first wife, first son and first principles.

"Vincere" begins as a love story between a young, handsome and ambitious Mussolini trying to make a name for himself among Italian socialists. Filippo Timi's volcanic and unrestrained portrayal of the dictator-to-be is enough to turn the eyes of the beautiful Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) into those cheesy, bulging, animated hearts of classic Looney Tunes cartoons. She's all-in for the radical socialist, selling her possessions to fund his newspaper and waiting around in the bedroom to offer her body to him. All this for a man who, in a particularly telling scene, doesn't even look at her when they make love. Young Benito has more important things on his mind, it seems.

His plan for Italy, as it transforms into fascism, is extravagantly presented by Bellocchio's larger-than-life cinematics. A bold use of on-screen text hammers slogans into our heads, and a liberal inclusion of stock footage of fascist imagery places the story in context and is powerful in its own right. The world that Bellocchio and cinematographer Daniele Cipri create is showy and impressive, chaotic and extreme - not only fitting for subject matter, but an artistic achievement in itself.

Dalser soon bears Mussolini his first son, who is named, well, Benito. But her fantasy can't last forever. It turns out that Mussolini chooses another woman over her to be his lawful wife, that she will be abandoned to destitution and that her son, whom Mussolini initially recognized officially, will be disavowed. As we would expect, she doesn't take the news well, and amid her screams at her ex-lover ("THIEF! THIEF!") and her shrill insistence that she is the true wife of the ruler of Italy, she is thrown into a madhouse to be erased from history forever. Just as Italy was beguiled and betrayed, she suffers the same fate - and through Bellocchio's masterful holistic command, her story becomes much more compelling than that of the whole nation.

Mr. Bellocchio's motion picture, adorned with embellishments, underlines his understanding that cinema informs us through effect, not necessarily through fidelity to the real world alone. "Vincere" is full of fact-bending moments. Take, for example, a scene where Ida Dalser visits a wounded and bandaged Mussolini fresh from the trenches of World War I. Coincidentally, Mussolini's official wife is also present, as well as then-King Victor Emmanuel III, foreshadowing a future transfer of power from monarch to dictator. However unlikely this meeting was to have occurred in reality, it is a powerful and effective symbol in the film, marking the transition from the first half of the film to the second; from Benito Mussolini to Il Duce; from adored lover to forsaken woman.

The film's latter portion focuses on Dalser's resistance to her undeserved damnation. Unable to produce marriage documents, her claims to conjugality are understood as evidence of her insanity. The film does slow down a bit when you realize that her wails are getting her nowhere, and that the man she remains hopelessly devoted to has all but forgotten her. She knows him only as well as the rest of Italy does - through films and magazines of his speeches and rallies. But "Vincere" is not to be missed; if not for the devastating yet exquisite portrayal of Fascist-era Italy, then for Mezzogiorno's piercing performance as a discarded woman.

4 Paws

Pros: An epic, magnified cinematic experience.