Vincere is a film that is based on the life of the first wife of
Benito MussoliniBenito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
. It stars
Giovanna MezzogiornoGiovanna Mezzogiorno is an Italian theatre and film actress.Giovanna Mezzogiorno was born in Rome, November 9, 1974, daughter of actors Vittorio Mezzogiorno and Cecilia Sacchi. She grew up watching her parents on set, conscious about acting. At first she wanted to become a ballerina and she...
as
Ida DalserIda Irene Dalser was a lover and possibly the first wife of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.-Early life:...
and Filippo Timi as Benito Albino Mussolini. It was filmed under the direction of
Marco Bellocchio, who also wrote the screenplay with Daniela Ceselli, and it was released 22 May 2009 in Italy. It was the only Italian film in competition at the
2009 Cannes Film FestivalThe 62nd annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 13 to May 24, 2009. French actress Isabelle Huppert was the President of the Jury. It was announced on March 19, 2009, that Pixar's film Up would open the festival...
.
It won four Awards at the
Chicago International Film FestivalThe Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America....
(Cinematography, Actor (Filippo Timi), Actress (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and Director) and won four Silver Ribbon (Actress (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), Cinematography, Editing and Art Direction). Giovanna Mezzogiorno was rewarded with the
National Society of Film CriticsThe National Society of Film Critics is an American film critic organization. As of December 2007 the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers.-History:...
Award for Best Actress 2010TheNational Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress is an annual award given by the National Society of Film Critics to honour the best leading actress of the year.-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
.
Plot
The movie relates the tragic story of
Ida DalserIda Irene Dalser was a lover and possibly the first wife of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.-Early life:...
, who fell for the future Italian Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, supported him while he was unemployed in the early 1910s, and married him, presumably around 1914. She bore Mussolini a son, Benito Albino, before the outbreak of World War I. The two lost touch during the war years and, upon discovering him again in a hospital during the war, she also discovered Rachele Guidi, who had married Mussolini in the meantime, and a daughter borne to Guidi and Mussolini in 1910.
Historically, with his following political ascendency, Mussolini suppressed the information about his first marriage and he (through the Fascist party) persecuted both his first wife and oldest son and committed them forcibly to asylums. Dalser died in an asylum in
VeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
in 1937 at the age of 57 of brain haemorrhages and Benito Albino died in 1942 at the age of 26 in an asylum near
MilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
after repeated coma-inducing injections.
Cast
- Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Giovanna Mezzogiorno is an Italian theatre and film actress.Giovanna Mezzogiorno was born in Rome, November 9, 1974, daughter of actors Vittorio Mezzogiorno and Cecilia Sacchi. She grew up watching her parents on set, conscious about acting. At first she wanted to become a ballerina and she...
as Ida DalserIda Irene Dalser was a lover and possibly the first wife of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.-Early life:...
- Filippo Timi as both Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
and Benito Albino Mussolini
- Michela Cescon as Rachele Guidi
- Fausto Russo Alesi as Riccardo Paicher
- Pier Giorgio Bellocchio as Pietro Fedele
- Corrado Invernizzi as Dottor Cappelletti
Reception
Vincere was well received by French critics during the
2009 Cannes Film FestivalThe 62nd annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 13 to May 24, 2009. French actress Isabelle Huppert was the President of the Jury. It was announced on March 19, 2009, that Pixar's film Up would open the festival...
: this powerful political drama was considered to be a possible
Palme d'OrThe Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
, along with
Un ProphèteA Prophet is a 2009 French prison film directed by Jacques Audiard. Audiard claims that the film aims at "creating icons, images for people who don't have images in movies, like the Arabs in France," though he also had stated that the film "has nothing to do with his vision of society," and is a...
from
Jacques AudiardJacques Audiard is a French film director, the son of Michel Audiard, also a notable screenwriter and film director.He won twice both the César Award for Best Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language, in 2005 for The Beat That My Heart Skipped and in 2010 for A Prophet...
and the
The White RibbonThe White Ribbon is a 2009 Austrian-German film, released in black and white, written and directed by Michael Haneke. The drama darkly depicts society and family in a northern German village just before World War I...
from
Michael HanekeMichael Haneke is a German born Austrian filmmaker and writer best known for his bleak and disturbing style. His films often document problems and failures in modern society. Haneke has worked in television‚ theatre and cinema. He is also known for raising social issues in his work...
.
It received a rating of 85 from the review aggregate site
MetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, as well as a 93% "fresh" rating from
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
External links