Il Divo

One strategy of artistically representing an elusive and enigmatic subject is to mimic that subject, to adopt its elliptical nature as the structure for the work of art. Il Divo, Paolo Sorrentino’s film about Italy’s seven-time Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti, relies heavily on such a tactic. Not content to merely recreate documented and imagined events, or to candidly present possibly incriminating facts, Sorrentino’s film radiates the wit and larger-than-life persona of Andreotti. The overwhelming impression is not only of a man who cannot be punished for crimes he almost certainly committed, but of a man who cannot be arrested in the eyes of others, whose intentions and actions largely remain opaque even to those closest to him. The precise details of Andreotti’s doings often become convoluted here, but that hardly detracts from the carnival atmosphere of the man or the movie. [Tyler Parks]