Italian entrepreneur and politician Silvio Berlusconi has died aged 86 from leukemia. At the head of the transalpine government for 9 years, also boss of a media empire, the “Cavaliere” became a fictional character under the direction of great filmmakers like Nanni Moretti and Paolo Sorrentino.
He started his career in the spotlight. Before being a wealthy entrepreneur, then Italian head of government, Silvio Berlusconi sang on cruises. An outstanding animator and salesman, he will build an empire in the media, construction and sport. He entered politics in the early 1990s, with the creation of his centre-right party, Forza Italia. Silvio Berlusconi, who died at the age of 86 from leukemia, marked the history of Italy.
>> Follow the reactions live after the death of Silvio Berlusconi
His personality divides and many scandals mar his political career. Silvio Berlusconi fascinates, even beyond the Peninsula. Renowned filmmakers, such as Nanni Moretti or Paolo Sorrentino, will seize the character to bring him to the big screen, without failing to criticize his excesses.
1“Le Caiman (Il Caimano)”, by Nanni Moretti (2006): not easy to make a film about Berlusconi!
The Cayman tells us the story of a producer of low-budget films, Bruno, who is bankrupt both professionally and personally. He finds hope when he meets a young director, Teresa, and her film project The Cayman. Bruno enthusiastically accepts what he thinks is a financial thriller before carefully reading the script and discovering in it… a biographical fiction on Silvio Berlusconi. The film is a charge against the politician, which displeases the broadcasters. But Bruno has already committed and will have to defend this project at all costs.
Alongside Bruno’s setbacks, the viewer discovers the scenario of the Caiman, which exposes Berlusconi’s rise on the media and political scene in a dark light, against a backdrop of populism and financial affairs. For the final scene, the only one that Bruno manages to shoot, Nanni Moretti himself puts on the costume of Berlusconi, condemned by a court, being applauded by the crowd.
The film was presented in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival in 2006. On the poster, we find the director Paolo Sorrentino (he plays the husband of Aidra in the film Cataracts). The latter will also be interested in “Berlusconism” with Silvio and the others.
2“Silvio and the others”, by Paolo Sorrentino (2018): politics, rhinestones and glitter
In this film from the director of The Big Bellezza, Berlusconi (played by the star of today’s Italian actors Toni Servillo) is coming to the end of his reign. The second half of the 2000s, before the resignation of the head of state, was marked by the scandals of the “bunga bunga” evenings, fine parties that Berlusconi organized in his villas. “I did not want to sign an investigation on Silvio Berlusconi, I focused on the years 2006-2010, which were marked by an explosion of vitality and vulgarity”explained Paolo Sorrentino to the Parisian. Silvio and the others multiplies the party scenes, where rhinestones and sequins try to hide the vacuity. The director strives to draw the portrait of a man who fascinates, elusive, but paradoxically increasingly isolated in his ivory tower.
3“Draquila”, by Sabina Guzzanti (2010): a documentary about the management of the earthquake in L’Aquila
In 2009, Italy trembles. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake hits the center of the Peninsula, killing nearly 300 people. A year after the tragedy, journalist Sabina Guzzanti signs a vitriolic documentary, castigating the management of the crisis by the head of government at the time: Silvio Berlusconi. The director, fierce opponent of the Cavaliere, denounces in particular the privatization of civil protection, responsible for managing disaster situations. For Sabrina Guzzanti, the earthquake is also an opportunity for the politician to restore his image tarnished by scandals.
The documentary was presented out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, leading to a boycott of the Croisette by the Italian government. The film was received ambivalently by critics.
Bonus: “Berlusconi, King Silvio”, a documentary that traces the rise of the “Cavaliere”
This documentary directed by Amenta Marco looks back on Berlusconi’s meteoric rise. “Through the facts, but also the testimony of politicians and personalities close to the Cavaliere, a look back at twenty years of triumphant Berlusconism, a clever mix, typically Italian, of innovation and conservatism, populism and economic liberalism.