Films & Schedules - V

Videocracy offers a look at the media empire of Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and how his reality TV shows beguiled a nation.

A jolly, Mussolini-loving agent, an aspiring martial artist/singer, a paparazzi wrangler-cum-outlaw, and Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister of Italy, are just a few of the outlandish personalities in this documentary that explores the mad world of Italian television. In a country obsessed with game shows and reality television, whose leader owns a controlling stake in much of its media, what sort of life is worth living and what sort of example is worth following? Videocracy quietly asks these questions while casually observing its subjects go to auditions, attend lavish parties, and get thrown into jail, yielding jaw-dropping answers.

Filmography: Sacrifiico: Who Betrayed Che Guevara? (01), Gitmo—The New Rules of War (05).

In English and Italian.

Sponsored by Nel Centro.

80 Minutes     Digital    

Interests: Documentary Views.

The early life and rise of Benito Mussolini is shown here through the eyes of his first wife, Ida, all but erased from history. Juxtaposing Ida's tragic decline into insanity with Mussolini's phantasmagoric rise to power, Bellocchio fashions a unique glimpse of a little-known aspect of history.

Bellocchio delves into the hidden early life and rise to power of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, as seen through the eyes of his quietly erased first wife. Beginning as a theater actor, journalist, and socialist on the rise, Mussolini meets Australian aristocrat and socialist Ida Dalser in 1914—and she falls hard for him. Their torrid affair compels her to sell everything to help him fund “Il Popolo d’Italia,” the newspaper that would soon become the propaganda tool of the newly formed Fascist party. After Ida gives birth to their son, Mussolini rejects them both. He eventually has them arrested, marries another woman, and dispassionately watches as Ida slips into insanity. Juxtaposing Ida’s tragic story with the phantasmic public one of the grand Il Duce, Bellocchio fashions a unique glimpse into an extraordinary period in Italian history.

Selected Filmography: Fists in the Pocket (65), Leap Into the Void (80), The Butterfly’s Dream (94), The Nanny (98), The Wedding Director (07).

Cultural Partner: Italian Cultural Institute, San Francisco.

128 Minutes    

Interests: Narrative Feature, History.