Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Desertman84 Vincere,an Italian word for English,is a film that is based on the tragic lives of Benito Mussolini's first wife,Ida Dalser and their son,Benito Albino.It features the Giovanna Mezzogiorno as Ida and Filippo Timi in a dual role as Mussolini himself and his son,Benito Albino as an adult together with Fausto Russo Alesi,Michela Cescon and Pier Giorgio Bellocchio.Marco Bellocchio directs.It tells the story of Ida, who fell in love with the future Italian Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini.She supported him while he was unemployed as she shares his dream in life that involves triumphantly leading the Italian masses away from monarchy.She believes wholeheartedly in his ideals and his future as the leader of Italy that she sells everything she has to fuel the development of his newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia.They got married around 1914. She bore Mussolini a son named Benito Albino, before the outbreak of World War I.While the two fell in love,he quickly switches spiritual and political allegiances from an atheistic socialist to a deeply Catholic fascist because an, allegiance with the Vatican will allow him to wrest and retain control over Italy's government.Following his political ascendancy in 1925,the marriage certificate disappears and Ida learns that he has married Rachele Guidi with whom he had a daughter.She unwisely begins to protest the situation persistently that she was forced into house arrest and then shoved permanently Ida and their son into an insane asylum which determined her fate and the future of her young son. The film ended stating that Ida died in an asylum of brain hemorrhages;her son died as well in 1942 at an asylum after repeated coma-inducing injections; and Mussolini was killed by his enemies.This is a definitely one of the best Italian films I have ever seen.Mezzogiorno provides a great performance as Ida as well as Timi,who definitely will mesmerize the viewer as the ambitious young Mussolini and his insane son as an adult particularly when imitates his father's speech among his friends.Although the story started very well and it loses steam when both Ida and Benito Albino becomes mentally ill,the performances on the lead stars will keep us involved in the film.It also has a great cinematic lesson that worship of false leaders can lead to both personal breakdown and national collapse. Added to that,the film has a lot of passionate and emotional moments despite the fact that it can be incoherent at times especially if one is not well- versed with Italian history and the life of the late Fascist dictator.But overall,it is a can't miss film.Definitely,highly recommended.

filmalamosa This film as other reviewers have noted....starts out powerfully and then kind of loses its appeal.The problem is Ida Dreslar's life in an insane asylum is just not that interesting and it starts to lose you. Once Mussolini discards her the rest of her life is boring. But also her character is disturbing her fatal attraction to Mussolini and her inability to keep her mouth shut and live a normal life. She was insane seems to be the right answer.Beautifully filmed -- the actor Timi is far better looking than Mussolini... Mezzogiorno is attractive and plays the mad role well... although the mad house scenes were mostly camp.

David Traversa I found this movie extremely absorbing, from beginning to end. It's true what other critics have observed that the real Mussolini in the old newsreels looks quite different from the actor personifying him, and the sudden confrontations between one and the other are quite unsettling. Could it be that recreating this historical newsreels with this actor as Mussolini was not possible due to the insufficient budget? Or maybe the director wanted to show us the real Mussolini to give us a good idea about the individual? Another confusing issue: The actor playing Mussolini also plays his adult son. And we don't get to see the final days of this dictator, when he was involved with Clara (Claretta) Petacci, his last lover, twenty eight years younger and executed with him (and both corpses hanged upside down in the public square). The photography and the camera work are exquisite, as are the lighting --absolute perfection-- the acting --masterful-- and the music --excellent. Very somber movie, shot most of the time in heavy darkness; there is no comic relief whatsoever, not even light humor, but then, the story is extremely dark and tragic, something that could have come out from a Dorothy Parker story.

Yaaatoob Marco Bellocchio's 'Vincere' is a dark and powerful film that follows Benito Mussolini's rise to power through the eyes of his first wife, Ida Dalser, who was seduced and then betrayed by Mussolini as he abandoned her and their son on his way to becoming Italy's dictator, ultimately disavowing any knowledge of their existence. The film starts with a stylish and operatic punch as a young Mussolini (played by Filippo Timi) veers away from socialism to form the National Fascist Party, the narrative speeding through historical events at a steady pace for the first half hour, interposed with newsreel headlines and archive footage projected on screen in a manner reminiscent of Lars Von Trier's 'Europa'. Abruptly the film shifts focus to Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) as she is forcibly separated first from Mussolini, then from her own son and finally from the outside world as Mussolini attempts to cover up any trace of their marriage and has Dalser committed to an insane asylum. Not only does this present a shift of perspective, but it's a stark shift in the film's tone too. Gone are the stylish and grandiose themes of revolution, seduction and upheaval, replaced by a tragic and startling performance from Mezzogiorno as her character descends further into mental illness. Filippo Timi provides a frenzied and forceful portrayal of both 'Il Duce' and the adult version of the dictator's unrequited son, but it's Giovanna Mezzogiorno's career defining performance that steals the show, showing Dalser as strong, resilient and somewhat naive in outset, harrowed, resigned and on the very brink by the film's close. Mezzogiorno's role is somewhat allegorical of the film as a whole, as like Italian society Dalser too was seduced and subsequently betrayed by the charm of the fierce and intelligent Mussolini. Ultimately with 'Vincere' Bellocchio and his lead actors present a mature and thought provoking look at one of the most clouded stories of Fascist Italy's past with an uncanny sense of style and dramatic flair and punctuated by the film's wonderful classical score. Remarkable.