Vincere (2009)

92% of critics liked it
(87 reviews)
63% of users liked it
(10,779 ratings)

This unusual and offbeat historical drama rests on a little-known conceit. Though seldom discussed in history books (and reportedly undisclosed for half a century), fascist dictator Benito Mussolini conceived an illegitimate son by a woman named Ida Dalser -- a son Mussolini allowed to be born,… More This unusual and offbeat historical drama rests on a little-known conceit. Though seldom discussed in history books (and reportedly undisclosed for half a century), fascist dictator Benito Mussolini conceived an illegitimate son by a woman named Ida Dalser -- a son Mussolini allowed to be born, acknowledged, and then promptly denied for the duration of his life. The tale begins in early 20th century Milan, with Benito (Fabrizio Costella) working as the socialist editor of a controversial newspaper called Avanti. His dream in life involves triumphantly leading the Italian masses away from monarchy and toward a "socially emancipated future." He met the young and wealthy Ida (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) once before, in Trento -- where they enjoyed a brief exchange; they re-encounter one another during Mussolini's period at Avanti and it becomes clear that Ida has fallen deeply in love with Benito. She believes wholeheartedly in his ideals and his future as the leader of Italy -- to such an extent that she sells everything she has (her apartment, furniture, jewelry, and the beauty salon she owns) to fuel the development of his newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia.While the two become romantically entangled, with Ida positively magnetized by Benito's charisma and Benito hooked on a lust for power, Benito quickly switches spiritual and political allegiances overnight, changing from an atheistic socialist to a deeply Catholic fascist -- Catholic, because an allegiance with the Vatican will enable him to wrest and retain control over Italy's government. Benito and Ida marry and parent a son together, Benito Albino Mussolini (circa 1915), but the marriage certificate soon conveniently disappears and Ida learns, to her horror, that Benito has married someone else. She unwisely begins to protest the situation -- so loudly and persistently that she's first forced into house arrest and then shoved permanently into an insane asylum -- raising key questions about the fate and future of her young son. On a stylistic level, director Marco Bellocchio films this historical material with the passion, theatricality, lyricism, and tragedy of a classical Italian opera. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr. 8 min.
Directed By: Marco Bellocchio
Written By: Marco Bellocchio
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Mar 19, 2010 Wide
On DVD: Jul 27, 2010
Studio: IFC Films

Critic Reviews

Joshua Katzman, Chicago Reader
Carol Crivelli's soaring classical score heightens Bellochio's operatic tendencies.
Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com
Bellocchio has turned the story of Mussolini's discarded wife and son into a movie that has some of the bully swagger and excess of Il Duce himself.
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Vincere is a thrilling period drama about the power of delusions.
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
There's visual poetry here and haunted performances from Mezzogiorno and Timi -- who plays two roles, and is especially gripping as Dalser 1/2 1/2s grown son.
Tom Long, Detroit News
A passionate, bold look at power, paranoia and betrayal in a little-known corner of history, Vincere is steamy, sad and so Italian it feels like an opera.
Glenn Whipp, Associated Press
Bellocchio tells the film's historical story in an electrifying fashion, mixing in newsreel footage, on-screen slogans and Futurist art, a bit of thunder and lightning and Carlo Crivelli's boom-boom score.
Jeffrey Chen, Window to the Movies
The events occur not to tell a narrative, but to illustrate an emotional progress.
Michael W. Phillips, Jr., Goatdog's Movies
A series of striking images that serve little purpose except to look striking.
Rob Thomas, Wisconsin State Journal
In telling the story of one wronged woman, Bellocchio shows how an entire country was flattered and seduced, then betrayed.
James Plath, Movie Metropolis
An art-house version of a historical drama that takes plenty of risks--some of which are more successful than others. But you can't say enough about Giovanna Mezzogiorno's performance.
Louis Proyect, rec.arts.movies.reviews
Movie starts off with a bang, but begins to lose interest as the main character (Ida Dalser) descends into mental illness.
Jonathan Kiefer, Sacramento News & Review
It's all a grand and flashy affair -- but also weirdly prone to the incoherence, redundancy and bullying dehumanization that characterized the political history it presumes to critique.
Derek Malcolm, This is London
Vincere maintains its grip through sheer flair.
Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
This skilfully made film tells a terrific story but is rather too densely packed to appeal to audiences unfamiliar with (or uninterested in) Italian history. Although it gives the wonderful Mezzogiorno yet another vivid role.
Tom Dawson, Total Film
Writer/director Bellocchio boldly orchestrates a whirl of archival newsreel footage, silent-movie clips and fictional re-enactments.
Allan Hunter, Daily Express
A full-blooded melodrama pitched at the level of grand opera.
Alistair Harkness, Scotsman
An audacious, wildly operatic exploration of Mussolini's rise to power from the perspective of the secret wife whom he all but erased from history.
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
...an operatic sendup of the strongman as monument, a tongue-in-cheek indictment of absolute power that at times comes dangerously close to deification.
Andrew Pulver, Guardian [UK]
The screenplay is unkind to lead actor Giovanna Mezzogiorno, requiring her to replay the same obsessive behaviour in less-than-inspiring locales, and all the film's energy just fizzles out.
Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail [UK]
Audiences are unlikely to feel sufficiently involved to cope with all the emotional agony.

Read all 22 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Jennifer X

Who would have guessed that a biopic - about Mussolini, no less - could have turned out so avant-garde? Although consistently overshadowed by its (admittedly) superior Cannes counterpart "The White Ribbon," the Italian film "Vincere" still has its strengths,… More
Who would have guessed that a biopic - about Mussolini, no less - could have turned out so avant-garde? Although consistently overshadowed by its (admittedly) superior Cannes counterpart "The White Ribbon," the Italian film "Vincere" still has its strengths, disregarding conventional biopic mechanisms in favor of a taut, yet occasionally overwrought, dramatic storyline. By omitting the traditional "this is where he started" bits, "Vincere" immediately catapults the viewers into the center of the action. The film is remarkably operatic, with clamoring swells and swoops and a soundtrack rivaling the likes of "Amadeus." Director Marco Bellocchio ("Good Morning, Night") makes skillful use of old 1930s film reels, masterfully juxtaposing grainy WWI propaganda with scenes from the film, flashing and fading out of victims in mental hospitals with sunken eyes just as the opera voices billow and subside. Where "Vincere" succeeds most at is exploring the concept of sex as a mechanism of character - before Mussolini comes into power, he is seen subjugating Dalser, foretellingly, in much the same way. In one particularly harrowing scene, Dalser spreads herself naked on a comforter, having sold all her possessions in order to fund her lover's Socialist newspaper. "Say you love me, just once," the needy Dalser begs. In true fashion, Mussolini responds by violently pressing his lips against hers, obscenely ravishing her naked body. The image fades out, and a troop of advancing soldiers marches across the screen, preliminarily connecting the bedroom to the battleground before the historical events happen. Yet the problem with "Vincere" - as with all biopics - is that it comes off as quite one-dimensional, essentially focusing on Mussolini's pathway to power through his character and personal relationships. Once the dictator leaves the film halfway following his abandonment of Dalser to a mental institution, there is fundamentally no more film, leaving us to deal with Dalser's theatrics in the absence of a powerful male figure. As a Mussolini biopic, the melodrama had worked wonders. As an Ida Dalser one, it's a bit too much, as the actress Mezzogiorno screams obscenities, psychotically flinging letters onto the ground and generally raising havoc among the ward. Her performance is powerful, to be sure, but her character is simply not interesting nor sympathetic enough to carry the film by herself. Viewers can neither identify nor sympathize with Dalser's overtly masochistic tendencies, and soon, her hysterics begin to grow a little old. If the first half were taken in isolation, "Vincere" might have been applauded as a greater film, portraying the gripping story of dictator ravenous for all aspects of power, sex and love. While the second half is not terrible, it falters tremendously in contrast, carefully and destructively losing steam with every second it goes over.
Stefanie C

Without a doubt, this is the best movie I have seen this year! Political unrest, the rise of fascism and Mussolini, interspersed with actual vintage newsreel footage. There are eerie parrallels with Mussolini's relationship with Ida and Italy itself. As always, Mezzogiorno is… More
Without a doubt, this is the best movie I have seen this year! Political unrest, the rise of fascism and Mussolini, interspersed with actual vintage newsreel footage. There are eerie parrallels with Mussolini's relationship with Ida and Italy itself. As always, Mezzogiorno is equally stunning and enthralling to watch. This is a story that needed to be told and deserves recognition for its complexity and impact on Italian national identity and consciousness.
Walter M

It is always a good sign for a biopic, which this really is not, to start in a totally unfamiliar place to the viewer. At the start of the stunning mad fever dream of a movie, "Vincere," Benito Mussolini(Filippo Timi) is not a fascist, but at the other end of the political… More
It is always a good sign for a biopic, which this really is not, to start in a totally unfamiliar place to the viewer. At the start of the stunning mad fever dream of a movie, "Vincere," Benito Mussolini(Filippo Timi) is not a fascist, but at the other end of the political spectrum, a socialist, in Milan in 1914, challenging god to strike him down. Unluckily for a lot of people in the future, he is not but Lady Ida Dalser(Giovanna Mezzogiorno, in a superb performance) is sure as hell impressed and they are soon making hot sex. So, Mussolini who lived on a steady diet of police confrontations where he shouted that the last king will be choked with the entrails of the last pope(Or is it the other way around? I get confused...) sees his opportunity with the beginning of World War I. While most of his colleagues want neutrality, he wants war, publicly claiming it as a revolutionary act. In a coldblooded way, he does have a point, since the world will never be the same way again, and the Russian Revolution has a lot to do with this. But in reality, he sees an opportunity to work the popular sentiment, not against it, creating a newspaper, Il Popolo D'Italia, that Ida sells all of her belongings to support. And what writer-director Marco Bellocchio does wonderfully with "Vincere" is use the style of agit-prop movies, especially those by Sergei Eisenstein(yes, there is a baby carriage), with archival footage to ably dissect these movies and the movements they promote.(Movies are also everywhere in the film, not only in theatres, but in hospitals and outdoors, too.) With fascism, they dictate the reality they so much want to control every detail of. Ida is representative of the people in that she is drawn to Mussolini through animal magnetism, as an insanity took hold over the populace.(Another meaning of insanity is somebody who cannot accept reality.) And for many, fascism is an ideology that does its thinking for you. However, there are some things you cannot control and Mussolini could not how his story would end.
Kyle S

A very prestigious and dramatic character study of Ida Dalser, Mussolini's secret lover. She bore him a son, and sold all of her belongings to fund his newspaper which made him become known to the public, yet he disowned her and pretended he didn't even know who she was. The… More
A very prestigious and dramatic character study of Ida Dalser, Mussolini's secret lover. She bore him a son, and sold all of her belongings to fund his newspaper which made him become known to the public, yet he disowned her and pretended he didn't even know who she was. The film was up for the Golden Palm in 2009 at Cannes, and has a great operatic score, with some beautiful cinematograpy. It was directed by Marco Bellocchio, and stars Giovanna Mezzogiorno(Of "Don't Tell" and "Love in the Time of Cholera.") The best scenes in my opinion were when Dalser was watching Chaplin's "The Kid," her eyes in tears, as she could sincerely relate to the film, and the scene when she was outside in the snow, clinging to the gate, throwing letters out into the night, while a scene of her son pushes down a statue of Mussolini's head in his boarding school, that whole sequence was eloquent and beautiful.
Daisy M

From Italian director Marco Bellocchio came this biography war drama Vincere, which told the story of Ida Dalser, who claimed to be Benito Mussolini's secret wife. With this movie she told her story,she was his lover, got a his son, and separated from him, and how they interned… More
From Italian director Marco Bellocchio came this biography war drama Vincere, which told the story of Ida Dalser, who claimed to be Benito Mussolini's secret wife. With this movie she told her story,she was his lover, got a his son, and separated from him, and how they interned her in a psychiatric hospital. Access was denied to her to see her son.The movie contained dark shadows but was marvelously constructed and the result was effective.The dialogue was small while the music carried the movie through.Directing was amazing and acting was convincing. Giovanna Mezzogiorno had a strong character, but she was weak in her love for Mussolini.