Vincere
Synopsis
Vincere presents Mussolini’s rise to power through a fictional retelling of his seduction and catastrophically violent betrayal of his reputed first wife, Ida Dalser, and their son. Like much of Italy, Dalser abandoned herself to him body and soul.
This film is not currently playing on MUBI but 30 other great films are. See what’s now showing
VINCERE suggests the fatuous historical dramas that usually sweep the Academy Awards; in execution, it may be the most tantalizing film of Bellocchio’s venerable career. The first half has a pulsating momentum that’s all but irresistible: This is the sort of filmmaking that bypasses the eyes and ears and goes straight for the central nervous system.
Ben Sachs
April 02, 2010
Strictly Film School
Less a biography on the early life of Fascist leader Benito Mussolini than a dissection into creating (and sustaining) a cult of personality, Marco Bellocchio’s Vincere is a textured, operatic, and incisive historical fiction…
Acquarello
October 01, 2009
The through line for Bellocchio is cinema itself, from an early scene in which fighting movie patrons become a sort of living newsreel, to the many archival film clips and propaganda slogans ingeniously worked into the body of the film. The history of 20th-century Italy emerges as a kind of grandly cinematic delusion, and Vincere as a timely cautionary tale about despots who fancy themselves media barons — and vice versa.
Scott Foundas
May 20, 2009
Related films
In the Mood for Love
Wong Kar-wai, 2000
A Dangerous Method
David Cronenberg, 2011
Devil in the Flesh
Marco Bellocchio, 1986
My Mother's Smile
Marco Bellocchio, 2002
Camille Claudel
Bruno Nuytten, 1988
Julie & Julia
Nora Ephron, 2009
Séraphine
Martin Provost, 2008
Bright Star
Jane Campion, 2009
Out of Africa
Sydney Pollack, 1985
The Wedding Director
Marco Bellocchio, 2006
Good Morning, Night
Marco Bellocchio, 2003