From the makers of Gommorah (2008) comes the biopic of one of Italy’s most prominent and most controversial political figures, Giulio Andreotti. The film entitled Il Divo, spans from the period when Andreotti begins his seventh term as Prime Minister in 1992 to when he was on trial for his alleged involvement in the Mafia.

During this time period, Italy was a country trying to cope with the kidnapping and assassination of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro (Andreotti was later accused of being involved in), while the Christian Democrat party was in shambles due to corruption and scandal, and there were many murders occurring of high-level bankers, judges and journalists.

Andreotti has been called Divo Giulio which means “divine Julius” due to his similarities to Julius Caesar. The film won the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008.

Director Paolo Sorrentino comments on making a film about such an influential person, and how he sifted through all the reading material in order to make a film that was accurate.

“I‟ve always wanted to make a film about Andreotti, but when I started reading up on him I found myself wading through literature that was so vast and contradictory, it made my head spin. For a long time I thought that all this “material” could never be funneled into the essential structure that a film, with its rules, requires,” Sorrentino explains.

Sorrentino read thousands of statements and found two comments about Andreotti from two women, Margaret Thatcher and Oriana Fallaci, which helped him find the direction the film should go in. Thatcher is a retired British politician who is the only woman to hold both positions of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and leader of the Conservative Party. Fallaci was an Italian journalist and political interviewer.

“Such a huge amount of literature required the rare gift of synthesis. So I am going to quote two women who possess this gift to a far greater degree than myself or others.  One of them is Margaret Thatcher who does not mince her words when describing Andreotti: “He seemed to have a positive aversion to principle, even a conviction that a man of principle was doomed to be a figure of fun.”
 
The other is Oriana Fallaci. “He scares me, but why? This man received me most courteously, warmly. His wit made me roar with laughter. He certainly didn’t look threatening. With those rounded shoulders as narrow as a child’s. With those delicate hands and long, white fingers, like candles. His always being on the defensive. Who’s afraid of a sickly person, who’s afraid of a tortoise? Only later, much later, did I realize that it was precisely these things that made me scared. True power does not need arrogance, a long beard and a barking voice. True power strangles you with silk ribbons, charm and intelligence.” 
 
The film opened on April 24th in New York in two theaters, and has already grossed $13,867.

—Jessica Delli Santi