Yesterday at the LFF saw the press screening of Il Divo - Paolo Sorrentino's new film. After the relatively small scopes of 'Consequences Of Love' and 'The Family Friend' , 'Il Divo' finds Sorrention expanding his vision to a much grander scale - in an epic that runs at almost 2 hours, Sorrentino tears into Italian politics, focusing his gaze on one Guilo Andreotti, an Italian Politician of the centrist Christian Demoratic party who served as Prime Minster from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979, and from 1989 to 1992 as well as serving as Minister Of The Interior (1954 and 1978), Defense Minister (1959-1966 and 1974) and Foreign Minister (1983-1989), and he has been a Senator for life since 1991.

  The film , in particular, focuses on Andreotti's seventh term as Prime Minister - however most of the events that occur druing this time are all tied to earlier key moments in Italian politics so the film moves back and forth on the timeline without ever pausing for breath!
Sorrentino's ambition is remarkable: when one considers the amount of information he manages to convey within the film, the two hour running time suddenly seems like a joke. At breakneck speed he introduces characters, events, dates, confessions: and none follow each other too linearly. Key scenes only link later in the film, fragmenting the already cracked narrative even further. It's almost as if the film intends for the viewer to experience the byzantine structure of Italian politics first hand - where secret organisations, the Vatican, the Mafia and the Senators are inexplicably linked but no-one can quite draw the lines straight from one organisation to the other

  In the role of Guiseppe Andreotti, Toni Servillo gives a masterclass in acting. He manages to embody a man who most of the time gave the impression that there was nothing to embody. Almost like a saint whose beyond the squabble of this world, Servillo's Andreotti remains passive, always emotionless in the face of events that happen around him. He is a cynical observer, ever-ready with little quips which ,most of the time, are so dry that they are not even noticed by the intended party. Even at his most vulnerable hour, Andreotti remains an enigma - his only moment of emotion comes from (what feels like) an imaginary confession midway through the film where he speaks directly to the camera and admits to everything. Even then he still justifies each act, each moment and his guilt does not seem like the guilt of someone who has committed a crime but a matryr who is suffering for the sins of the others.

  Unfortunately none of the supporting cast get nearly as much attention and end up being brief scribbles on paper: Andreotti's wife, his secretary, his political allies all pass through the film , merely playing second fiddle to Andreotti. Perhaps that's the point, perhaps Sorrentino is portraying a man to whom everyone always had to be second fiddle to. However this does weaken the dramatic structure of the film somewhat.
 
   The major problem in the film is the choice of subject matter. Sorrentino excels at intimate character studies and his previous two movies are testament to this. However in Andreotti, the subject matter is simply too big to create a sense intimacy with the character so Sorrentino tries to create a fim which is epice in its' scope ; a scope which he tries to filter through a sense of intimacy- and unfortunately fails. The film ,neither political history nor mere character study, tries too hard to fulfill the requirements of both being a verbal political history and the story of one man simulatenously and ends up turning into something else entirely. Add, on top of this, the fact that unless you are well-versed in Italian Politics post 1945 until now, a lot of the material is going to go right over your head, and you have a film which although deserves to be seen, is going to have a very small chance of getting to its' intended audience. After all it is not hard to appreciate what Sorrentino is trying to do: and one must admit that this is as fine a way of exercising the demons of Italian politics as any. Unfortunately unprepared audience members will find themselves very much at a disadvantage.