What an amazing story this is, and what a disappointing film is the result. This tells the truly extraordinary tale of dictator Benito Mussolinis secret lover and their son, both of whom he completely disowned and worse as he rose to power in the fascist Italy of the 1930s. Its little-known stuff, especially in this country, but the movie, while visually stunning, never engages with any of the characters, making it impossible to care especially about a man who was almost on a par with Hitler.
The main problem is Timis portrayal of Mussolini. He is a bug-eyed, bullying, shouting man clearly driven to bigger things Ill never be content he roars at Ida, his lover (Mezzogiorno). Quite why this beautiful, sophisticated woman, who had studied in Paris and opened a fashion salon in Milan, should fall for this nutcase is never made clear, but fall for him she does. After she saves him during a street rally they begin an affair, and when he is sacked by newspaper Avanti! she sells all of her possessions to help him set up his own paper. He writes her a receipt, which is never mentioned again.
As his paper becomes the official organ of the Fascist party she announces she is pregnant, and at this point the film hedges its bets. We see a wedding, but it is presented out of sequence is it a fact, a dream or wish fulfilment on Idas part? When another woman, Rachele Guidi, suddenly appears with babies in tow Ida is literally thrown out of the picture. Mussolini was either a bigamist or a serial adulterer, and when they two women meet visiting the wounded Benito in hospital it is Ida who is ejected.
Worse, she is then arrested and committed to a lunatic asylum, where her letters to the police, the church and the authorities are all intercepted. When she is moved to an island opposite Venice the film suddenly becomes alive, as she finally meets a sympathetic doctor who, realising she is sane, tries to help her. She stubbornly keeps insisting on her sons right as Mussolinis son. The boy, meanwhile, is also committed.
Mezzogiorno makes an amazing Ida, beautiful, full of passion and insisting on her rights, but ultimately its a performance in vain. Saddled with a dull script, a terrible soundtrack which sounds uncannily like North By Northwest, and a Mussolini who is a wild-eyed blank, exactly why are we being asked to sympathise?
The pluses are the amazing design features, which include a great sequence where Mussolini opens a Futurist exhibition of painting. The Futurists insisted that war was a great thing, the hygiene of the world as they put it, and Mussolini embraced this idea and the amazing paintings it produced. The film has a consistent visual style throughout, and a shot of Ida dropping her letters hopefully out of a barred window through the snow is breathtaking. The use of real news footage of Mussolini is also cleverly done, its just a shame that care is so lacking in the script.
Overall verdict: Visually ravishing but empty look at Mussolinis dirty secret, which fails to elicit any empathy.
Reviewer: Mike Martin