Vincere

Vincere is an Italian film about rise to power of Benito Mussolini. At least that's what one would believe at the outset. What the film is more interested in telling though is the largely unknown true story of Mussolini's mistress Ida Dalser, played with great effect by Giovanna Mezzogiorno. Early on in the film the couple falls in love (at least it appears), and has a child. Ida even sells everything she owns in order to fund her lovers aspiring political paper. For her he is the only thing in life worth living for. It quickly becomes apparent however, that Mussolini feelings are quite different. Once in power though he banishes her from ever seeing him again and basically denies the existence of them as a couple ever being involved. This type of behavior would be a bit unusual but, oh, did I mention he already has a family. Thus the real story begins when Ida is sent to live with her sister all the while constantly spouting her mouth off claiming to be Mrs. Mussolini and bearing the first born son of the dictator. Things don't go well from there as the powers to be realize her as a threat to the empire and thus take actions to deal with it.
Vincere is lit with dark light that gives the picture a moody texture. Single scenes throughout are played out to perfection. The problem with Vincere though is that it doesn't do a good job of getting you invested enough in the characters to really make you care about what happens to them. The things that Ida goes through are horrible but you can't help feeling all the while why she would allow herself to go through such grief in the first place. Vincere shows great promise for director Marco Bellocchio, I just think that he needs to find a story with characters written with a bit more humanity.

C+

2010