A Penne In The Neck

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, is as dogged as he is controversial. Embedded onto the collective consciousness of Italian politics like the hair plugs that sustain his combover, in 2008 he wriggled his way into another term of office after removing Romano Prodi, just two years after Prodi had deposed him. Berlusconi also owns a majority shareholding in broadcaster Mediaset, and presides as owner of AC Milan, no less. Let’s not even mention his rather priapic approach to diplomacy.

This all seems extraordinary, but the truth is that Italian politics is perennially flush with colourful characters. Giulio Andreotti’s incredible political odyssey, spanning several decades, is given a retrospective in Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo, out this Friday in the Edinburgh Cameo and the Glasgow Film Theatre. Incredibly, Andreotti served seven times as Prime Minister across the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. He’s also enjoyed more than his fair share of time on the naughty step; not only did he freely admit in later life that he was deeply entrenched within the Mafia, he has also been acquitted, convicted, and then acquitted again of murder.

The civil service gets a bonus fillip as the GFT also screen Gardens In Autumn from the 21st to the 23rd March. Otar Iosseliani’s more satirical feature sees past-it politician Vincent, played by Severin Blanchet, forcibly removed from office, only to discover that far from filling a void, his material gains and insatiable mistress have created one. Out of a job and out of a girlfriend, he goes back to the streets (probably not in an Ice Cube way) to find himself. He goes about doing this in the way that any repressed, ageing public administrator would; by ravenously pursuing a mid-life of sexual promiscuity, and getting bevvied with old friends.

Seul Contre Tous, showing at the Dundee Contemporary Arts as part of its 10th birthday celebrations, is not so much a mid-life crisis as it is a mid-life catastrophe. Gaspar Noe directs this tour de force of unflinching brutality that enthrals and antagonises in equal measure in its portrayal of a deeply misanthropic man. The film even goes as far as to display a message warning the audience of its own x-rated content in the opening frames. Seul Contre Tous is an engaging and deeply disturbing film that merits your consideration, more so because the DCA are screening it free of charge.

There’ll be no such luck where Paul Blart: Mall Cop is concerned, so your comedy fix is perhaps better served by Lesbian Vampire Killers. The film serves up a humorous homage to hammer horror as James Corden and Matthew Horne find themselves in a remote cottage with some pretty girls (and possibly future cadavers) on the pretext of a hiking trip, only to be besieged by the eponymous villainesses. Whether you enjoy this or not may depend on whether you enjoyed post-Peep Show cash-in Magicians, as well as your tolerance for Corden’s overexposed boy breasts.

Elsewhere, Duplicity reveals itself on general release this Friday. Tony Gilroy, who’s heavy involvement in The Bourne Ultimatum and Michael Clayton should signpost decent fare, is on writing and directorial duties here with a pretty formidable cast. Julia Roberts and Clive Owen are ex-CIA and ex-MI5 respectively, now working for rival multinational pharmaceutical corporations. They are both assigned by their employers to source the formula for a product that will mean a sizeable profit; naturally, their paths cross, and what follows is an extended exercise in subversion and deceit with hints of romantic entanglement. [Ray Philp]