Cinematically, “Vincere” is as lively and as enigmatic as the young Benito Mussolini on whom the film is based. Marco Bellocchio’s film engages and enchants on a level that matches the same mystification instilled on the characters.
You’d be mistaken for presuming “Vincere” is a standard biopic, least of all on Mussolini (Filippo Timi). Here we see him as a young, lively, handsome man with a powerful glower in his eyes. Ideas and images of his rise to power are constantly flowing through his head, and the performance embodies an actually terrifying portrayal of Il Duce different from any image we’ve seen of him before.
As interesting as a character study of Mussolini would be at this young age, his personality is ultimately standard, and the film is more concerned with his lover and alleged wife Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno). Dalser met Mussolini in Milan when he was a journalist advocating socialism. She sold all of her possessions to help fund his newspaper Il Popolo D’Italia, and she had a passionate love affair with him during which time he fathered a child.
The intrigue of the film is in her madness and her obsession over her love for the man. After Mussolini is wounded in World War I, Ida comes to his side only to learn that he’s married Rachele Guidi. He denies any connection he has towards her and has her kept under surveillance ever since she began parading around their son, Benito Albino Mussolini, as proof of his infidelity. She’s eventually placed in a mental institution as she continues to insist that Mussolini is her husband, and Benito Albino is removed to an orphanage.
The strength of the film is in discovering a new angle for the sane-person-goes-to-mental-institution-and-no-one-believes-me-because-they-all-think-I’m-insane story. Her marriage to Mussolini may well have been true, even though no record of it was ever found, and moreover, it was no fantasy that Mussolini made love to her and cared for her. But what made her insane was her attraction. The energy Mussolini had, not even the man, the ideas or the power, was what swept her off her feet.
This is the kind of infatuation that’s treated normally in the “Twilight” franchise, and “Vincere” is smart to acknowledge the complexities of this emotion. With that in mind, the film soon becomes about the psychotic urge to win out over the intensity one imagines. The English title of the film is “to win,” and we get that sensation in Ida trying to dominate Mussolini, Benito Albino trying to dominate his past and Mussolini trying to dominate the equally impassioned future of Italy.
The film so implies this intensity firstly in its stark, HD visual aesthetic. Powerful colors, shocking close-ups and aggressive animation over black and white newsreels make for the ideal mood setter. It likewise has a moving, fluttering score, most notably in scenes inside a movie theater where a silent film is being shown. There’s something enchanting about the cinematography that goes into these dark moments inside the cinema.
The chemistry between Mezzogiorno and Timi is the most convincing however. Mezzogiorno has scary beauty, dignified poise and mental range beyond many foreign actresses. As for Timi, it’s impossible to not disappear into his cold, unbroken stare. I would imagine I didn’t see him blink once, and in that deep focus is a remarkable depth of character and vision. Watch him during a sex scene with Ida and notice how steady his head is, how set he is on something other than the beautiful woman beneath him.
If there is an element that doesn’t entirely fit, it’s that the film is inherently cryptic in its storytelling, but I would imagine such is the nature of madness, obsession and love. It jumps around in time and intercuts odd silhouettes of the women inside the mental institution, but it never detracts from the mood or the intensity of the film.
“Vincere” is the sort of mesmerizing piece of cinema that can capture complexity in its appearance. The visuals, the performances and the style all build this biopic into something more. It’s a victorious effort.
3 ½ stars
Great review. I agree with everything you say: the storytelling was sometimes confusing but the direction, cinematography and acting made up for it. Filippo Timi’s performance was Oscar-worthy.