Desertman84 Vincere,an Italian word for English,is a film that is based on the tragic lives of Benito Mussolini's first wife,Ida Dalser and their son,Benito Albino.It features the Giovanna Mezzogiorno as Ida and Filippo Timi in a dual role as Mussolini himself and his son,Benito Albino as an adult together with Fausto Russo Alesi,Michela Cescon and Pier Giorgio Bellocchio.Marco Bellocchio directs.It tells the story of Ida, who fell in love with the future Italian Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini.She supported him while he was unemployed as she shares his dream in life that involves triumphantly leading the Italian masses away from monarchy.She believes wholeheartedly in his ideals and his future as the leader of Italy that she sells everything she has to fuel the development of his newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia.They got married around 1914. She bore Mussolini a son named Benito Albino, before the outbreak of World War I.While the two fell in love,he quickly switches spiritual and political allegiances from an atheistic socialist to a deeply Catholic fascist because an, allegiance with the Vatican will allow him to wrest and retain control over Italy's government.Following his political ascendancy in 1925,the marriage certificate disappears and Ida learns that he has married Rachele Guidi with whom he had a daughter.She unwisely begins to protest the situation persistently that she was forced into house arrest and then shoved permanently Ida and their son into an insane asylum which determined her fate and the future of her young son. The film ended stating that Ida died in an asylum of brain hemorrhages;her son died as well in 1942 at an asylum after repeated coma-inducing injections; and Mussolini was killed by his enemies.This is a definitely one of the best Italian films I have ever seen.Mezzogiorno provides a great performance as Ida as well as Timi,who definitely will mesmerize the viewer as the ambitious young Mussolini and his insane son as an adult particularly when imitates his father's speech among his friends.Although the story started very well and it loses steam when both Ida and Benito Albino becomes mentally ill,the performances on the lead stars will keep us involved in the film.It also has a great cinematic lesson that worship of false leaders can lead to both personal breakdown and national collapse. Added to that,the film has a lot of passionate and emotional moments despite the fact that it can be incoherent at times especially if one is not well- versed with Italian history and the life of the late Fascist dictator.But overall,it is a can't miss film.Definitely,highly recommended.

David Traversa I found this movie extremely absorbing, from beginning to end. It's true what other critics have observed that the real Mussolini in the old newsreels looks quite different from the actor personifying him, and the sudden confrontations between one and the other are quite unsettling. Could it be that recreating this historical newsreels with this actor as Mussolini was not possible due to the insufficient budget? Or maybe the director wanted to show us the real Mussolini to give us a good idea about the individual? Another confusing issue: The actor playing Mussolini also plays his adult son. And we don't get to see the final days of this dictator, when he was involved with Clara (Claretta) Petacci, his last lover, twenty eight years younger and executed with him (and both corpses hanged upside down in the public square). The photography and the camera work are exquisite, as are the lighting --absolute perfection-- the acting --masterful-- and the music --excellent. Very somber movie, shot most of the time in heavy darkness; there is no comic relief whatsoever, not even light humor, but then, the story is extremely dark and tragic, something that could have come out from a Dorothy Parker story.

Harry T. Yung The unimaginative local title given to this movie is however quite descriptive, even if only factually: "The dictator's lover". The original title, meaning "Win", derived from an Italian Fascist song, may suggest a variety of main texts and subtexts on political, social, religious, personal and other subject matters surrounding that period of history in that part of the world. The movie however is an intimate account of all of these things seen from the eyes of one woman, Ida Dalser, purportedly Mussolini's first wife, whose quest of her entire life was to obtain legitimacy for the son she bore for the dictator. For that she suffered unspeakable agony, mainly in being thrown from one mad asylum to another, in a cruel but unsuccessful attempt to silence her claim.Portraying Ida Dalser with unflinching conviction is Italy's superstar Giovanna Mezzogiorno. If you have seen her in "Facing windows" (2003) or "Love in the time of cholera" (2007) you will know what high expectations one may have for her (there are of course many other movies but these two happen to be the ones I have been privileged to enjoy). Every expectation is met in this movie which is essentially her show, although Filippo Timi also shines in the few scenes where he portrays both Mussolini and their son (especially the latter).There is no denying that this two-hour movie is a gloomy affair, particularly the second half. Yet the audience's interest is clearly held, and not only by the superb acting. The general audience whose cinematic experienced usually does not venture beyond Hollywood fodder, if he happens to wander into "Vincere", should find refreshing the storytelling that lets the camera do most of the talking. For example, in one scene towards the end, Ida Dalser finally gets a letter smuggled in from her son from whom she has been separated for years. She is in her prison cell of a hospital room with a nun serving as nurse. The camera takes a close up of her with silent flowing tears. Then it moves to the nun's sympathetic face, as she slowly removes her veil, exposing her short hair. Immediately cut to the next shot, the scene shows Dalser walking out of her "prison" in a nun's attire. This is the sort of style that is offer in proliferation throughout the movie.

Tim Shechmeister You have to be kidding me, anyone who liked this.The story ends at minute 10: Mussolini won't acknowledge her or the kid. Boom. There's the movie. She tries no new strategy to get what she wants, just insists over and over. Until she dies. After two hours of boring the hell out of me.Movies need to go somewhere. Even Godard movies go somewhere. This just spins its wheels.But, some pretty good performances. Not incredible, but good.Also, for God's sake, they go to the movies like 1000 times in this. It was the turn of the century, they didn't even have that many. Terrible.