FILM FEST FEVER –MAMI 0 9-7
VINCERE –DIRECTOR MARIO BELLOCCHIO
‘I am Benito Mussolini’s wife, shouts an angry, sobbing young woman.
‘Every woman in Italy wants to be married to this man, not only you’, says the unbelieving nun in the mental institution that Ida Dalser in incarcerated. Ida Dalser, a beautician, is the first wife of Benito Mussolini, (then a journalist) and mother of his first born. This is their tragic love story which has been long forgotten and buried in the deep in the annals of Italy’s history. The story begins with their meeting in a socialist meeting where she falls in love with him. They publicly marry in 1914 and she gives birth to their son a year later. When his radical views upset his bosses in the Press he vows to publish another paper but does not have the money. Ida sells her apartment and everything she owns as capital for his venture. He becomes a sensational leader thanks to his newspaper and is well on his way to become the undisputable leader of Italy. He becomes a votary for war. When he is injured on duty a nurse Rachel saves his life. Mussolini marries this woman and she later bears him five children. When Ida learns of his new commitment she rages and furiously demands that her status of first wife be restored.
As Mussolini grows in power, Ida is silenced and eventually destroyed. The story unfolds painfully and slowly bringing to the screen the depth of woman’s trauma, her determination and unfailing faith in her man. She tells her sister, ‘he is only testing me. To see if I am prepared for greater things to come’.
‘For the first time’, the lady sitting next to me confessed, ‘I cried.’
The steamy love scenes between the young Benito and Ida lay the foundation of their strong ties. Why did Mussolini thwart Ida and marry Rachel? Why did he not just provide for her and the son at someplace? Why was he intent on destroying the mind and spirit of his lover? After all he was known to have had many love interests in his life. These questions remain unanswered.
A powerful performance by the actors Giovanna Mezzogiorno (Ida Dalser) and Filippo Timi (Benito Mussolini Senior and Junior) is the mainstay of the film. The story has layers of history and covers two generations and a war. Bellochio adds another layer of history –cinema. There are many scenes where people are shown watching a film. The first one is most amusing. As two factions are seated on either side of the aisle, the film is shows Italy entering the war. A pianist is playing live music reading from the sheets. The men in the audience shout slogans. A fist fight breaks out. Their shadows play on the screen but the pianist determinedly continues playing disregarding the violence in the theatre. The other scene which leaves a lasting impact is Ida watching Charlie Chaplin in ‘The Kid’ in the mental institution. The police pull the child from the father and Ida is reminded of her son being kidnapped and held forcefully elsewhere. As time progresses films move from silent to sound movies. Most of Mussolini’s later appearances are real images from archival news reels. In fact we see the father only on this black and white footage as Timi now plays Benito, the grown up son who can imitate the mannerisms of the leader. The film is homage to cinema.
Vincere (Victory!) is salvation for the soul of the brave and dignified Ida Dalser on whose frail body Mussolini stepped to reach his place in history. Perhaps it even reflects the country’s gratitude to a forgotten hero. What is important is that Bellocchio has achieved this without making it into a tear-jerker or a melodrama pleading for sympathy.
As Italian films go, operatic music and rich cinematography is a given thing. One warmly salutes the Italian cinema tradition. Viva Italia!
DEFIANCE- DIRECTOR EDWARD ZWICK
Here is proof that more and more filmmakers are not shy adapting from books. ‘The Bielski Partisans’ by Nechama Tec is the source of the film which tells the unusual story of Jews fighting back during the war. Daniel Craig and Live Schreiber are the elder brothers who lead a motley group of Jews into the woods and build a settlement for them. The four brothers survive the war, Nazis, the cold winter starvation, deaths and typhus to lead more than a thousand people to safety.
The story is layered with conflict between brothers, ideology, belief, rules and loyalty. Tuvia (Craig) is the eldest and is devastated when he sees his parents shot dead in his home. He takes revenge and kills the family of the police officer who ordered the killings. After that he is worried about the moralistic implications of his act. There would be no difference between Nazis and him if he killed for revenge and not just in defense. His younger brother is hot -blooded and leaves his group to join a Russian partisan group.
There is plenty of action where guns, tankers, soldiers and armed Jews take on each other during attacks. The settlement has strict rules where everyone works, no pregnancies are allowed and obedience to the leader is expected. The Bielski Otriad or Partisan Group steals food, weapons and provisions strictly avoiding any clash with the Nazis.
The younger brother (Schrieber) rejoins the group in a dramatic finale which had the entire audience of warm desi film fans cheer, whistle and clap loudly as if he were Shahenshah!
This heartwarming story of bravado, tender love, determination and humanity is yet another addition to the memorable films on the subject. Neither Craig nor Schreiber look Jewish enough but their portrayal brought out the long drawn pain of what it means to be one.
This was the last day of the Festival. I really did not want to miss any of the films but rushing from the scorching heat 36º heat outside into the c-cold theatre inside left me with a nagging cough and fever. Downed some strong medicine and somehow made it to the last two days armed with a shawl. I am glad I did that as I enjoyed these two historic films. I left with a sinking feeling knowing well that I had missed out on some terrific films like ‘Whisper in the Wind’, ‘Applaus’, ‘Gigante’ and ‘Road to Sangam’.
Tags: 11 Mumbai Film Festival, Defiance, EDWARD ZWICK, MAMI 2009, MARIO BELLOCCHIO, Vincere
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Hey Indu…. missed this post somewhere… brilliant writing… I am not even too sure if Vincere the movie in itself would have gripped me as much, though I am hoping it does… thw way you have written about the story Benito Mussolini’s wife Ida, of what she went through when the man in himself went through a transformation, somehow the pain was very well articulated… including how even while watching a comedy of Charlie Chaplin, Ida can re collect her personal misery… beautifully written, you are compelling me to watch this movie much more than any other post that I have read till now or reports and media scribes that i have read…. now.. to read more on what you have written about Defiance…
Once again, beautifully written… makes it almost compulsory to watch these movies… rest assured will surely look for ‘vincere’ … all thanks to you …
PS: Somewhere in the blitz of new wave and mind jazzing movies we take comfort in an old fashioned romantic story well-told.
saw “whsipers in the wind” and wrong rosary at r-city that day…was well worth the travel…people talk about iranian children films but this one equally good…wrong rosary was like Indu said ,an old fashioned romantic story well-told. After head on istanbul is always interesting to watch.
wrong rosary was actually a exactly opposite kind of a love story if compared with Head On…