Il Divo

This biopic of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti is titled after one of his nicknames, Il Divo, or The Divine (others include The Hunchback, Beelzebub and The Dark Pope). Andreotti bestrode Italian Politics like a colossus for forty years reigning as Prime Minister three times and also holding office in the departments of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Ministry of the Interior. During his life in Rome he built up a huge power base of loyal politicians and clergymen due to his traditional stance within the Christian Democrat Party.
 
Paolo Sorrentino's film opens with two montages showing numerous enemies of Andreotti meeting their maker in all sorts of imaginative and brutal ways and introducing members of his cabal in an extremely stylish way. Andreotti is shown as a very astute and clever man and his association with these people, plus his omnipresent police escort means that he is permanently supervised. The makeup and prosthetics present Andreotti as a Nosferatu-esque figure with incredible ears that are bent at the top and hands that barely separate. He is rarely seen moving, either sitting and fielding questions or standing and looking very uncomfortable which is perfect for a man who has spent all of his adult life in the Italian Parliament and, as he puts it, has an archive instead of an imagination and is afflicted with terrible headaches - he's seen drinking a soluble painkiller at least once a day.
 

 
This follows Gomorrah as an expose of a part of Italian culture little known outside of the country and I can't think of a similar figure to Andreotti anywhere in world politics, just as the Camorra have control in southern Italy on a scale unprecedented in global crime. Just as Gomorrah lifted the lid on the brutal and pervasive Naples-based crime syndicate, Il Divo explores just part of Andreotti's life and career. As Sorrentino explains in an interview, Andreotti's relationship with the Vatican alone would require two or three films! This follows only a brief period in his life from the late 1980s to the early '90s when he faced charges of Mafia collusion.
 
As well as looking at his relationships with other politicians and ambitions to be elected President of the Republic, Il Divo also examines how he interacted with the two women in his life: his wife and his secretary.  There is a brief role for Fanny Ardent, playing the French Ambassador's wife, and the conversation between her and Andreotti's secretary is quite amusing as she is advised to watch his hands as different gestures will say whether he thinks she is intelligent, is getting bored or will terminate the interview in five minutes.
 

 
This is one of the smartest screenplays I've ever encountered as there's not a word out of place or wasted - it's about a man for whom word were weapons, both offensive and defensive and occasionally both and you really have to concentrate to get the most out of the film.  Sorrentino directs with real flair, using a muted palette and very dark scenes to convey the darkness within Andreotti.  You get a sense of his visual eye during the opening montage when you see the killings and the captions identifying the victims swing round according to where the camera is so they always end up straight on the screen - the most obvious example is when Roberto Calvi (commonly known as God's Banker who was also depicted in The Godfather: Part III where Don Licio Lucchesi is apparently based on Andreotti) is revealed hanging from a bridge but upside down so the camera rights itself and the caption also turns the right way up.
 
I'd never heard of Giulio Andreotti prior to reading about, and then watching, Il Divo and he comes across as the most extraordinary person.  To do his life (so far, anyway) full justice would require half a dozen films as, since he was elected to the first Italian parliament in 1946, he gradually acquired more and more power, was the foreign minister and encountered numerous world leaders over many decades and, as I said earlier, had an extremely close and complex relationship with the Vatican and was suspected of involvement with the Mafia.
 

 
If he wasn't real, you'd have to make him up as Andreotti is such an extraordinary character and had led such an incredible life that it can't fail to make for riveting viewing.  From the very beginning with a series of captions (in Italian with English subtitles) informing you of Andreotti's past, the Red Brigades, the kidnapping of former two time Prime Minister Aldo Mora by the BR who executed him  and the shadowy P2 Masonic Lodge that Silvio Berlusconi is also suspected of being a member.  Il Divo gets its hooks in straight away and doesn't let go; it's not an easy watch but it's incredibly rewarding.
 

The Disc

 
Extra Features
The half hour Making Of is an interesting behind the scenes look where you get to see how certain scenes were lit and filmed and ties in well with the special effects featurette which shows you how many shots were either supplemented by or exclusively designed on the computer.  I was amazed by this as I should be because the best CGI is that which you don't notice.
 
There are two interviews with Paolo Sorrentino with a combined running time of just over half an hour and they are both fascinating and revealing as he talks about Andreotti, why he chose the project and what a huge figure he is in Italian politics.
 
There is a selection of deleted and extended scenes which are well worth watching - they are of high quality and I would guess that they were omitted for time reasons.
 
Rounding off the package is the trailer for Il Divo and other Artificial Eye releases.
 

 
The Picture
A stunning transfer of an amazingly well shot film.  Some scenes are breathtaking in their scope and attention to detail and the makeup and prosthetic work is incredible - when Toni Servillo is interviewed I didn't realise he was the actor who played Andreotti until it was mentioned!
 
*The pictures contained in this review are for illustrative purposes only and do not reflect the image quality of the disc.*
 
The Sound
The Dolby Digital 5.1 is of a very high standard, very bassy and presenting both the dialogue and music, both scored and sourced, really well.  When a scene needs to be tense, the soundtrack does a great job of stretching the nerves, especially with the LFEs.  The stereo option is fine but doesn't have the punch of the surround option.
 
At the beginning of the film every caption is subtitled but the translations fade out after a while but, by then, you've become so immersed in the film and used to the wording that you can translate them yourself.
 

 
Final Thoughts
Like the aforementioned Gomorrah, Il Divo explores a little-known part of Italian culture that those in Italy would know very well and there probably isn't a person alive over the age of 18 who doesn't know who Guilio Andreotti is.  I knew that Italian politics had a reputation for corruption and instability, averaging over a government a year from the Second World War until the 1990s, but I'd never heard of Andreotti.  This is a surprise as he is a monumental figure, not just in Italy but Europe. 
 
It doesn't matter whether you've heard of him or not as Il Divo is an utterly riveting film and leaves you wanting to know more about Andreotti.  I wonder if Paolo Sorrentino is considering a prequel, showing Andreotti's rise to power and his previous two tenures as Prime Minister - it would be a film I'd certainly watch.