Six years after his intimate reimagining of the Aldo Moro kidnapping that rocked Italy in the Seventies in 'Buongiorno, notte,' Bellocchio has made another haunting and even more sweeping and iconic historical film. 'Vincere' is about Benito Mussolini's secret first wife and son, who were hidden away and both died in insane asylums. 'Vincere' depicts a strange, distorted period in Italian history, and skillfully melds stock footage with recreations, black and white with color (rich in reds, alternating with ashen grays), public tumult with private torment. Visually lush and full of chiaroscuro, 'Vincere is also a showcase for the talents of Giovanna Mezzogiorno as Ida Dalzer, the woman who met Benito Mussolini when he was the editor of Avanti, an ardent Socialist with strong populist, anti-monarchical, anti-clerical views, who dramatically dares God, if He exists, to strike him down.

Opening sequences alternate between 1907 when Ida first meets Mussolini (Filippo Timi) in Trent, and 1914 in Milan. She is a respectable middle-class woman with a beauty salon. On the eve of WWI, he shifts from pacifist liberal to pro-war rightist. Deathly afraid of ending in mediocrity, he is ravenous for power. Ida intensely supports him whatever his direction, and sells all her possessions, including jewels, furniture, and her business, to support his newspaper. This leads to the founding of the paper "Il Popolo d'Italia," which becomes a fascist rallying-point. The film makes clear that she is madly in love but never mad. It also makes clear that though he declares his love of her and fathers a son named Benito, born just before he goes off to the front, whom he acknowledges, and they evidently marry, he keeps a certain distance.

In WWI Mussolini is wounded in the army and is pleased to be congratulated by the king. When Ida finds him he is being tended in hospital by a new lover, a woman named Rachele (Michela Cescon). This is the last time Ida sees him in person.

As Mussolini rises to power and becomes the dictator known as "Il Duce," linking himself with the ancient Roman emperors and dreaming of world domination, Ida is more and more kept away from him, and appears as a figure on the outskirts of power, at the center only of sporadic and operatic encounters during which she pleads for recognition and attention, only to be swept aside. She has a marriage certificate but it becomes lost. All her papers are taken. Mussolini remains with Rachele, is married to her, and fathers children by her. He conceals that he was married to Ida.

Ida, who calls herself Ida Mussolini and her son Benito or Benitino Albino Mussolini, is a woman obsessed, whom others urge to move on, but will not give up her pursuit of her idol and the man she believes to be the love of her life. For a while she is put under a kind of house arrest with her sister, then confined in one insane asylum and then another, while her son is taken away and sent to boarding school. She writes letters of protest to everyone, including the king and the pope; this of course only makes her seem crazy, but in a hearing it's evident that she is tragically obsessed, but lucid, and in fact she is never declared insane. A psychiatrist (Corrado Invernizzi) vows to help her, but she is taken elsewhere before he can do so.

The film is rife with operatic passages featuring bright lights, dark shadows, violent storms and heavy rainfall, and yet retains its own kind of lucidity; it's clear that the country and not Ida is mad, and Il Duce is the head madman. The most haunting scene shows an actual speech by Mussolini at the height of his power in which the gestures and facial contortions are not only ugly and strange but unmistakably those of a dangerous madman. Cut to the now grown son of Ida, doing an imitation of Mussolini's speechifying and himself appearing genuinely deranged. Records show both mother and son received treatments that were akin to torture, and Ida was incarcerated for eleven years. The son died at the age of 26; Ida Dalser died at 57, 30 years after she first met Mussolini Italy's eventual fascist dictator.

Since the film's protagonist is on the periphery, it makes sense that eventually we know Mussolini only through the newsreels she occasionally sees, which are brilliantly integrated into the film; it's hard to convey how striking and integral these images are. There are also haunting still portraits of Ida, showing her at progressive stages of suffering. The film's sense of pictorialism is augmented by a sense of the visual language of the period, heightened by a scene in which Mussolini is introduced to the Italian Futurists and their paintings, and excellent use is made of Futurist and Fascist graphic design and fonts. The sound track is powerful but muted.

The film in fact is most satisfying visually, and despite Giovanna Mezzogiorno's dedication to her performance as the independent yet long-suffering woman, there is a lack of three-dimensionality in the characterizations: the figures are monumental but not quite human. The focus becomes a bit distant even on Ida as her torments increase, and there is nothing about the private life of Il Duce. Finally there is not the intimacy Bellocchio achieved in 'Good Morning, Night,' except in the first intimate scenes between the young (still hairy) Benito and Ida. Nonetheless, the effect of the whole film is both sick-making and scary.

Though Bellocchio's style here is operatic, it's a swift-moving, elegant, contemporary kind of opera, and it works.

An IFC film, 'Vincere' was nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes and was also shown at Telluride, and Toronto. I saw it at a preview screening of the New York Film Festival.

In competition for 2009's Palme d'Or, Vincere is a new film by Marco Bellocchio. It is set in the early 20th century in Italy, during a dangerous time of oppression and political revolution, which cumulated in the evil that was Fascism. The story is not about the horrors of Fascism per se or how it rose to become an ideology matched in its ghastliness only by Nazism, but of its dictator Benito Mussolini and his private life.

Vincere tells the true story of Mussolini (Filippo Timi) and Ida Dalser (Giovana Mezzogiorno), his secret lover whom he had a passionate but somewhat sordid affair with. In the film, Dalser gives birth to a son who is taken away from her. She is also sent to a mental institution for claiming that she is the "rightful wife" of Mussolini; the latter is married and denies the affair with Dalser.

Much of Vincere revolves around Dalser, whom is portrayed as a sympathetic figure, a person who loved and trusted Mussolini with all her heart, but ended up suffering the ignominy of being a "prisoner of a vile dictator". Mezzogiorno's performance is noteworthy. She switches effortlessly from a seductive woman who oozes sexual allure (she appears completely nude in a number of shots) to a frustrated person devoid of the freedom to pursue personal justice.

Timi also plays Mussolini with a fierce affection. But he fizzles out in the second half of the picture after Bellocchio rightly gives more screen time to Mezzogiorno. Even though the core of Vincere rests upon the relationship (or lack of) between Mussolini and Dalser, the political themes of the film remain in the consciousness of the viewer throughout.

Bellocchio inserts old black-and-white footages of history into the film, drawing our attention to the fervent and violent political and nationalistic attitudes of that era. The shouts of "Italia! Italia!" and the real Mussolini giving a powerful speech about war are, at the very least, disquieting. Matched with a loud, rousing score with lots of brass and choir, the film is quite strong in creating a mood of paranoia.

Vincere somewhat ends too quickly. Even for a film that is slightly longer than two hours, it seems like more exposition is warranted and would have been greeted more positively than not. Thus, the film feels incomplete but it is still a well-made film with its cinematography, in particular, an aspect to appreciate.

It may seem ironic but in Vincere's most emotional sequence, Bellocchio uses clips from Chaplin's The Kid (1921). In The Kid, Chaplin's character is devastated when his young son is taken away from him by the state. Dalser, who watches the film in an open-air screening, draws strength from it in the hope that she will one day see her son again.

Bellocchio's Vincere is a decent entry into the Palme d'Or selection, but it is by no means a stunning piece of cinema. The private story of Mussolini (or rather Dalser's) is compelling enough to last the two hours, though it would have been better received with a more complete approach.

SCORE: 7.5/10 (www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com) All rights reserved!

"Vincere" is an artful biopic that tells the story of Benito Mussolini's mistress and perhaps first wife, Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno). The film jumps around the time line, mainly from the point of view of Ida, with a mixture of heated political rallies and shout fests, intense love scenes (mostly early in the movie, hidden in darkness), real footage of a pompous Mussolini, and operatic melodrama.

It's not a biopic of Mussolini, but we see glimpses of his early socialist and atheist convictions, his conversion to fascism, and his eventual support for the church (for politically expedient purposes until old age, judging from the history). We hear Mussolini dream of an Italy that surpasses morality and brings about fundamental changes. He's not specific, but he doesn't want to become like average folk. He wants to outdo even Napoleon.

The film follows a TV documentary and two books about Ida, based on reporting by Marco Zeni. In the reports, Ida Dalser claims she married Benito Mussolini in 1914. She also had a son with him, named Benito Albino Mussolini. Historians don't have direct evidence she married Mussolini, but they have evidence he accepted responsibility for their son. For unknown reasons, he left her a year later and married Rachele Guidi after returning from the war.

According to the history (not the film), his last mistress, Clara Petacci, was executed (by firing squad) and hung upside down in the Piazza Loreto (Milan) along with him. Ida might have had that to look forward to if she had been by his side (she doesn't seem like a stay at home or turn a blind eye type of wife – she would have been with him). Tragic madness is a common theme in drama, and Ida Dalser arguably has a touch of madness. Her love affair with Benito Mussolini (Filippo Timi) operatically moves from intense devotion to angry feud. She sells everything to fund his newspaper, gives him a son, and attempts to force him to divorce his wife and return her to her rightful place by his side. She won't even think of another man. Is it love, true devotion, or revenge?

Most of the film tracks Ida Dalser in extremes of emotion, especially as corrupt Fascists suppress her and take her to a madhouse. She writes to everyone to try to publicize her marriage, including the pope, and she drags her son to Mussolini to dramatically express her outrage. My first thought in trying to describe Ida was, well, at least she didn't kill her son to get back at him. The movie doesn't explicitly depict her doing anything this mischievous, or perhaps the unthinkable is possible.

Did she succeed in sacrificing her son to get back at Mussolini? It's possible she embellished her relationship with Mussolini and her extreme conviction rubbed off on her son. The odd thing is that this interpretation fits with Giovanna Mezzogiorno's compelling performance of Ida throughout the film. She seems in love with more than Mussolini. She wants to stand by his side and be the public wife of a dictator. For example, she won't consider signing a power of attorney to help provide financially for her son because it might be seen by (her imagined) Mussolini as disloyalty. She refuses to lie about her marriage to return home for the sake of her son.

At a minimum, she was adamant in trying to embarrass Mussolini, and she did so despite the welfare of her son. (History is less fair to Ida than the film since it also implicates her publicly denouncing Mussolini as a traitor.) She's noble in her resoluteness to truth (if the marriage is true, of course). But why wouldn't she move on when Mussolini has already married someone else? Is a country better off when political scandals come out about a politician's personal love affairs? Is her resoluteness to truth really a resoluteness to power and status, or revenge?

It's easier to feel sympathy for her since the Fascists also abused their power beyond any respect for justice. The film doesn't necessarily demonize Mussolini. But only someone as powerful and ruthless as a dictator is able to persecute and silence his accusers (whether wife and son, or otherwise) rather than face them in court. It's a clear case of corruption and abuse of power.

We could go back and forth between the two sides eternally. If she had remained silent, she wouldn't have been in an asylum in the first place, and Fascist doctors wouldn't have been around to try to force her to lie about her marriage. However, she wouldn't have ended up in an asylum in a just and moral country. But sometimes it's best to remain silent about some truths if they aren't in your (or your son's) best interest. And so on. The film allows you to make your own interpretation and to spread the blame around as you like. The musical score has a beautiful (and loud) recurring piece that builds up dramatically and ends in low scratchy strings. The film begins and transitions emphatically, almost mimicking Mussolini's exclamation of "boom, boom, boom" as he praises a painting. It plays like a silent film in some sequences, such as a comical scene of political advocates fighting with one another as silhouettes in front of a classic movie projector.

Some of the sets nicely recreate Italy of the time period (Mussolini's duel, with factories in the background, is one of the best), but you don't get a chance to linger on them and the lighting is dark. It would be interesting to compare the film on DVD to the version played at theaters to see if the DVD is any darker than intended. As it is, it's best to view the film in complete darkness to get the benefit of its subtle lighting.

Note: The subtitles translate "Vincere" as a verb, meaning "to win".

Bellocchio's latest is yet another look at a controversial Italian political figure, Benito Mussolini; however, it deals with a phase of his life which was kept 'in the shadows' for a great many years – the dictator's first marriage, which even yielded him a son! As was the case with GOOD MORNING, NIGHT (2003) – in which the film-maker had treated the abduction and execution of ex-Prime Minister Aldo Moro – the politician emerges not to be the central figure after all (remaining, similarly, little more than a cipher); here, in fact, the protagonist is Mussolini's secreted – or, more precisely, rejected – wife, who even winds up in a mental institution (a fate which also befalls their offspring, where both would die eventually)! The meticulous period reconstruction (and emphatic score) was to be expected, yet the human drama – and, by extension, the fine leading performances of Giovanna Mezzogiorno and Fabrizio Timi – is ultimately what renders the movie compelling; interestingly, while Mussolini as an older man is shown only via authentic newsreel footage, Timi plays both father and son as a young adult! Needless to say, the director distances himself from the Fascist fervor which had gripped his nation in those pivotal war years – choosing to depict Mussolini as godless (the film begins with him defying the Almighty to strike him down) and inhuman (both in the treatment of his first family and in his animalistic sexual prowess: the latter scenes, of which there a few, would otherwise have no discernible point) and even goes so far as to ridicule him by having son repeatedly caricature father's famously arrogant mannerisms while speechifying (with this in mind, the title – which translates to "Winning" – is clearly ironic, since what it presents is anything but the correct fighting spirit)!

I just love allegories. I love the way so much imagination is poured into the re-telling of a story via new material. We all know our history, so we know about Benito Mussolini, Il Duce, and his reign of Fascism over Italy. But we don't know about the adulterous relationship he had with a certain Ida Dalser, who gave birth to his child and who Mussolini, in his unforgivable cold-bloodedness, calmly strived to strip apart. That's what Marco Bellocchio's new film, "Vincere", is all about: it's a historical drama about the woman Mussolini tried so hard to ruin after economically and sexually using her...and it's also a sublime allegory of how he used all of Italy.

Critics worldwide have seen the genius behind portraying Mussolini's reign of terror as a headstrong but powerless woman. Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) instantly falls under the spell of a young, handsome Mussolini (Filippo Timi). Italy is only beginning to experience the first waves of Socialism, and among those first to rebel against the government is this young man who has a certain power with words; in a scene where he runs away from the police for being involved in a riot, he shields himself behind the curious Ida who stepped out for a look, and passionately kisses her. I mean, Benito is a good kisser, or so he seems to be, because Ida melts in utter passion in his arms while he kisses her and he...well, he's a really good actor too, for he can focus his strength on this steamy kiss at the same time that his full concentration and awareness are scrutinizing the area to see if the police are gone. Sure enough, once they're gone he pushes Ida away and runs without so much as a half-hearted smile...but the kiss was enough for Ida to fall mercilessly in love with him.

In a matter of days, she's stalking him, getting into his fights and showing him glimpses of her crotch which get our all-too human Benito hot for her. The first twenty-something minutes of the film our two main characters spend passionately and intensely going at it. Well, Ida does the passionate part and Mussolini, as I've said before, is a really good actor; while Ida spends her every second in a sexual Nirvana, he is all steam but his stare is distant, serious, no doubt thinking about anything else but the woman coming in his arms. Ida's obsession with the dude takes her as far as selling almost all of her things and giving him all the money so he can establish his own Socialist newspaper. Notice the incredibly sarcastic scene where Ida finally asks Benito to tell her 'I love you.' Mussolini, who at this point of the film hasn't gotten over his hate for Germans, plainly answers 'Ich liebe dich.' But this is an allegory, so here's where the plot thickens. Mussolini just happens to be married, Ida finds out, but he can't move himself to even let her go properly because he's becoming really powerful so he doesn't need her anymore. Ida gives birth to his child, but he couldn't care less. Ida's obsession is so deep, though, that she really starts pestering Benito every living moment she has...and by the time Benito is a 9-year old boy, Ida spills the cup and our villainous dictator sends her to an insane asylum and gives the custody of her son to one of his right-hand men. From here on, it's chaos...both in Italy and on our tragic heroine's life. Just as a side note, the film claims to be based on true events; obviously, the rise of Fascism in Italy IS a true event, but I can't vouch for the verisimilitude of Mussolini's secret lover. I'm ready to believe it, though, because he was such a horrid man that he must've done to thousands of women the very same thing he did to Ida. And not only women: I mean, didn't he screw up millions of people's lives by using them? The film brings the suffering of an entire war-torn country into a very intelligent perspective by allegorizing it into the character of Ida Dalser, and that's more than can be said by any recent historical drama.

Sounds good, doesn't it? The acting is pitch-perfect, especially Mezzogiorno who redeems herself for her atrocious main performance in Mike Newell's "Love in the Time of Cholera" and manages to give us a heart-breaking, poignant, sublime and VERY powerful performance (I wonder why she didn't get an Oscar nod? Academy voters must've definitely been high). We see a woman who has no chance of survival, who'll never see her son again, whose life has been ruined by Italy's most powerful man, but her strength and courage stand true to the very last. The screenplay is VERY good, actually; Carlo Crivelli's score is one of the best scores I've heard in a long time (which sounds like a perfect cross between Philip Glass and Dario Marianelli) and Marco Dentici's cinematography couldn't possibly be better. Also, the film never lags, and it touches on so many levels of human suffering and cruelty, that you can't help but me moved to deeper thought. What more can you ask of a film? See it. Italy has outdone itself this year with such an excellent film. No one in their right minds could possibly be disappointed. Rating: 4 stars out of 4!!

When beauty-salon owner Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzorgiorno) has a chance encounter with the young Benito Mussolini (Filippo Timi), she becomes enamoured by him. They cross paths a number of times - one at a political rally where Mussolini challenges God to strike him down if he truly exists; the other she sees him pass her store leading a mob of political activists; and again as he is escaping the authorities, when they share their first kiss. Attracted to his enormous power and political ideals, she sells everything she owns in order to fund his new political magazine. They get married, and he gives her a son. But when he returns from World War I, he marries another women, and his political status vastly grows. Mussolini denies knowing her and puts her under surveillance. When Ida refuses to deny their marriage, she is committed to a mental hospital and all documentation of their marriage is destroyed.

Only unearthed in 2005 by Italian journalist Marco Zeni, this is a fascinating story that was, for years, suppressed by the fascist regime. Both the story and the film is a terrifying portrayal of a country under a ruthless dictator in a turbulent time in Europe. It is not actually known if the story is even true, as all evidence was destroyed by Mussolini's agents. But as well as Ida's stubborn refusal to deny it, their grown son, Benito Albino Mussolini, always spoke out how he was the 'bastard' son of the dictator, and was also placed in a mental asylum. He spoke out until his tragic death at the age of 26. He is portrayed in the film (also played by Timi) at first imitating Mussolini at the insistence of his friends, and then later manically quoting lines from his speeches as he wanders open-robed around the hospital.

The film is a great story that is magnificently acted, beautifully filmed, and unconventionally directed by Marco Bellocchio. Words fly out of the screen shouting 'war!', strange women gaze into the camera whose identity we don't find out until much later in the film, and the film sometimes jumps forward years while only hinting at the events that have taken place in between. It's a brave and worthwhile decision, and although it does slide into a more conventional genre picture near to the end, it remains frequently gripping and anger-inducing. Mezzogiorno in the lead role is outstanding, and in the scene where she breaks apart as she enters her second asylum, she is both heart-breaking and strangely inspiring. Timi is a force of nature as Mussolini, nailing his mannerisms and ruling over his people with a steely disposition.

Vincere was tipped for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, but was overshadowed by the admittedly better films The White Ribbon and A Prophet. But this is a fantastic film in its own right - insightful, powerful, and disturbing, and Bellocchio, a veteran at 71, is definitely a director to keep an eye on.

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Marco Bellocchio directed and wrote (with Daniela Ceselli) this very dark version of the private life of Benito Mussolini, a portion of his life that centered on his mistress and the mother of his son, one Ida Dalser. Though the film never really reveals whether Ida Dasler and Mussolini were married (Mussolini already had a wife and child when he me the devastatingly beautiful and erotic Ida) but that simply doesn't seem to matter while watching this artistic triumph of a film. What the director does manage to portray is the life and times of Italy before, during, and after WW I, a time during which Mussolini began his influence as a socialist and ultimately founded Italian Fascism, becoming the Fascist dictator of Italy. The many permutations of the concepts of monarchism and socialism and eventually Fascism are delineated by the film, if at times as shadowy in their explanation as is the director's love of dark in lighting the screen during almost all of the action. Bellocchio uses black and white film clips throughout his film giving it a somewhat documentary flair, but the performances by the actors make this film very much a visceral drama and not a dry rehash of history.

Filippo Timi gives a gripping performance as both Mussolini the ardent and handsome lover and politician whose life is always controlled by the term 'Vincere' ('Win'). Aptly, when the bulky monster Mussolini rises out of the socialism into fascism and the war the part of Mussolini is 'played' by the film clips of the real person. But as the film draws toward the end of his life, Timi once again enters the film in the role of his son Benito Albino Mussolini, a lad stricken with insanity and confined to a sanitarium. As Mussolini's mistress (aka 'wife' by her accounts) Ida Dalser, Giovanna Mezzogiorno offers one of the strongest cinematic portrayals of an important woman of history. She is simply riveting - erotic when the romance begins, faithful even when she discovers Mussolini has a wife, and uncontrollably fierce as she is confined by the government (with Mussolini's approval) to an insane asylum. This is one of those performances that will live in memory long after this film is seen and hopefully will garner awards when the Oscar season comes round.

In all this is a beautifully wrought, intelligent, beautifully acted, occasionally confusing melodrama that sheds light on the man Mussolini, his rise to power, and the women who came under his influence. Recommended.

Grady Harp

I'm afraid to say that I'd not encountered Italian director Marco Bellochio or his work before and bought this DVD as it was part of 2 for £10 offer and it looked the most interesting the shop had.

I wasn't disappointed but would say that for most viewers, myself included, that it's the human story here that holds most interest. I'm not an expert in, nor wish to know the exact history surrounding its background, except, the fact that we are dealing with an infamous Italian Fascist leader and his first son and wife. These details are essential and placing them in a time-frame via newsreels is useful.

It may be that the Italians needed a film themselves about this obviously dark aberration in their home history and I guess that it does that satisfactorily, though I'm no position to know as to how accurate it is.

I, for one didn't feel it too long; I was soon aware that one & 3/4 hours had been chalked up, for instance. Giovanna Mezzogiorno puts in a magnificent and honest performance as the rejected mother and wife and Filippo Timi makes a fair stab as a young Mussolini. The film has a great, semi-operatic score that's always in tune with the emotions and turmoils and helps to sweep proceedings along. The cinematography too is very good, suitably moody and majestic.

Incarceration into decades of mental institutions, presumably on the order of Mussolini and the Party, a sane and healthy Ida Dalser fights tooth and nail to see her son again and for her very freedom. In a perpetual ritual of having her silenced she tries to keep hold of her dignity and sanity and tries any means possible to aid her, except she will not deny that she is wife of Mussolini, who is now "saving Italy" (and is having more important things to do than be troubled by a deluded mad-woman).

I cannot think how it could be greatly improved and was a good, not great film, that tells a story that does not touch me in the historical sense but as a human one, certainly does.

My brother was in attendance for this one, and we were pretty much in unison in opinion. The first act of Vincere ("Win!") is quite extraordinary. In fact we both had the spine chills for the credits which featured a display of enormous mounted ship cannons.

It's a film about the relationship between Benito Mussolini and Ida Dalser. The first act, where they are actually together, is extraordinary. Mussolini is a power hungry madman, incapable of a non-hyperbolic thought, he quotes Napoleon at will and ravishes Ida in the moonlight of their cavernous apartment. He's the ultimate political opportunist, and Ida falls in love with his pure thuggery, despite his obviously third-rate intellect. I then had a problem for the remainder of the film, because I was expected to sympathise with Ida, whom Mussolini pushes away, even though she is a brute-loving nincompoop.

Despite Giovanna Mezzogiorno's excellent acting as Ida Dalser, it's like Bellochio isn't sure where to take the story, as if life doesn't really fit into his narrative structure. I remembered reading Robert Graves' book Count Belisarius as a teen, which starts off as a stonking good read about the adventures of a general in the Byzantine Empire, but then becomes far to encumbered with an adherence to history, that almost makes the latter part of the experience like reading a textbook, a real chore.

As another reviewer has pointed out, the actor in the movie who plays Mussolini, Filippo Timi, is far more interesting and nuanced than the actual historical figure, and it's simply ridiculous when we see newsreel footage and have to see Mussolini the real man, followed by Timi in the next scene. I have to hand it to Italians that they certainly have a talent for electing verminous cretins to high office that has lasted to this very day. You see the newsreel footage and it's impossible not to titter.

The film in retrospect is simply a misadventure in my opinion.

In the past sixty,plus years since Italian dictator,Benito Mussolini was deposed from power,he has only been painted as the brutal,power mad despot,generally depicted in films. What is little known is that he originally started out in the Italian Socialist Party,who was duped to join the Fascist movement,after World War 1. What is also less known was he was married to another woman (Ida Dalser). 'Vincere' (basically Italian for victory,or 'Win' as the film's title translates to in the English subtitled edition,here)is the sad tale of Dalser,when she fell head over heels for the young Benito Mussolini,when he was a young,head strong man in love with Marxist theory (he is shown early on dismissing the existence of God to an outraged crowd). As the years move on,the young Benito marries Ida,has one son with her,becomes seduced by the warped ideas of nationalism,which bloomed into all out Fascism. From here on, the focus is on Ida,who starts to see her Benito less & less,until she pretty much is rendered invisible to Benito (their marriage is regarded non existent,much to the chagrin of Ida),until Ida is eventually kept imprisoned in a mental hospital for life. Marco Bellochio ('Henry IV',the remake of 'Devil In The Flesh')writes & directs this chilling portrayal of a woman driven mad by circumstances beyond her control. Giovanna Messogiorno plays Ida Dalser,with passion & panache. Felppo Timi wears two hats as the young Benito Mussolini (early on,replaced by vintage black & white film clips of the actual Benito Mussolini in later years),as well as Benito Albino,his son with Ida,as a young man (who would eventually end up in the same sad ending as his mother). The rest of the cast is rounded out with the likes of Corrado Invernizzi,Fausto Russo Alesi,and others. the film also acts as a back drop for Italian social history,from 1907,until 1945,with some nice use of visual metaphors (religious images are abundant,here,as the Catholic church was an ardent supporter of the Fascist movement in the early 20th century). Another nice notch for Bellochio. Spoken in Italian with English subtitles. Not rated by the MPAA,this film contains strong language,full frontal nudity (both female & male),some strong sexual content,and disturbing images not for young eyes

There is a secret in Mussolini's life : a woman and a son, recognized at birth and later repudiated. This is an obscure page in the History. The secret has a name Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) , unknown in the biography of the Duce (Filippo Timi) . Their liaison starts in 1914 ; she is a well-to-do beauty salon owner and he is an impoverished young Socialist and union activist . When Ida meets Mussolini in Milan, he is the editor of Avanti and a fervent pseudo-socalist/nationalist who claims to guide the masses by means of revolution through an anticlerical and anti-monarchical future . Ida already had a brief meeting with him in Trento and she was stunned. Ida truly thinks of him and his ideas. Mussolini is his hero. To finance Il Popolo D'Italia, a newspaper he had founded at the heart of the fledgling National Fascist Party, Ida sells everything he owns . She bore Mussolini a son, Benito Albino, before the outbreak of World War I. When the WWI broke out, Mussolini enlisted in the army against Austria-Hungary and disappeared. When Ida finds him again, he is in a military hospital, under the care of Rachele , whom he has just married. She financed his activities and in return, the Duce treated her cruelly, systematically trying to eliminate these facts , marriage included, from his life. Eventually, and after the march on Rome in 1922, Mussolini seizes power and King Victor Emmanuel has no choice but to hand it over . And later on, he would find another lover , Clara Petacci, with whom he would die, being hung and their bodies abused at a square in Milan .

An engaging film that combines drama , passion with strong erotic scenes , stock footage , paying tribute to Charles Chaplin's The Child and impressive music creating a highly sensitive oratorio . An official selection of the Cannes, Toronto and Telluride Film Festivals and from acclaimed auteur Marco Bellocchio , this dark movie which tries to chart the life of Ida Dalsern, who instantly fell in love with Benito on a train and did her best to help him in his political career. Vincere contains archive footage and is roughly based on two books respectively called Mussolins Marriage by Marco Zeni and Mussolinis Secret Child by Alfredo Pieroni, and on Fabrizio Laurenti and Gianfranco Norellis documentary film Mussolinis Secret. Actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno plays Ida Dalser as the first wife giving a stunning acting , while actor Filippo Timi plays two roles, the young Mussolini and in the second part of the movie Mussolini's secret son, Benito Albino . Both of them provided a fine job and their performances left one thirsty for more.

The motion picture was well directed by Marco Bellocchio , despite the flaws , shortcomings and faults it is a passable flick with enormous emotional force . Bellocchio is one of the best Italian filmmakers with a long career . His ferocious and gripping first feature, was the acclaimed Fists in the Pocket (1965). This caustic and anarchic look at an extremely troubled family launched him instantly to the first ranks of the Italian film scene, alongside Antonioni, Pasolini and Bertolucci. For the next several years, films such as China Is Near (1967) and In the Name of the Father (1972) found Bellocchio examining the turbulent world of leftist politics and revolutionary dreams with an eye both sympathetic and jaundiced. During the 1980s and 1990s, under the spell of unorthodox-and, to some, controversial-psychoanalyst Massimo Fagioli, Bellocchio's emphasis turned to examining the interweaving of family dynamics and sexual desire as they produce and undermine personal identities. Films such as Nel nome del padre (1971), Leap into the Void (1980) and Devil in the Flesh (1986) create complex allegories of an audacious originality. More recently, Bellocchio has turned to more straightforward narratives in a number of films that examine Italy's recent past and its present, from The Nanny (1999) to one of his most recent work, Dormant Beauty (2012) and Il traditore (2019). In his recent period has returned Bellocchio to the forefront of contemporary cinema, while combining the lessons learned from both the previous political and allegorical work. What has remained constant is Bellocchio's searching critique of the institutions that control individuals and organize the flow of power: the army, political parties, schools, the state and its laws, the Church, and the family.

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.

Some amazing, poetic imagery, a rich, almost operatic score, and a hyper-emotional yet always grounded lead performance by Giovanna Mezzogiomo make this film work.

The story of Mussolini's cruelly rejected and forgotten wife and son (they were a problem politically, since it turned out he was already married) is certainly interesting, and a glimpse at the toll of dictatorship on a much more human scale. It was also gripping to see Mussolini portrayed as more complex and dangerously charismatic than the buffoonish cartoon he has become in the public's mind.

That said, for me the film felt long at 125 minutes. The repetition with which Ida Dalser is locked away in various mental institutions and studiously ignored is at first powerful, but ultimately wearying.

Perhaps I was over prepared, as so many critics declared this Bellocchio's best film in years, perhaps ever. But then, I was always a bit out of sync with the critical establishment re Bollocchio. I'm also not obsessed with "Fists in Pocket" his first film, widely regarded as a masterpiece. As with "Vincere" I liked it, but felt it milked one tone too long. I'm more drawn to his more subtle and complex work like "Good Morning, Night" and "Henry IV".

But I will re-watch this, and I'm happy to have discovered this director's wonderful, unique, slightly surreal, yet still emotional work, even if it took me too many years to do so.

If the film-writer wanted to emphasize WHY the young Mussolini hated the church, he did a great job. The church's role in backing the power-mad dictator is demonstrated again and again. The movie shows his wife as clear-minded, yet her actions even after the priest has cautioned her on how to 'act' and appear to submit, indicate a crazed woman who can't believe that her actions are hopeless in the light of the corrupt country that Italy has become. there are many parallels to the United States here, as our country becomes increasingly an oligarchy, ruled by corporations with few in Congress not bought by their bribes.

Makes you wonder if speaking out does any good in such a hypocritical, ignorant time in which the T-Partiers, not realizing they embody the rants of Mussolini, speak to the low-esteem, the animalistic urges of the masses. This was a fantastic movie and I was amazed that there were so few in the audience, though not amazed that it appeared at our art movie houses here in Boston (the West Newton's adjunct, the Arlington's Capitol).

Much has been told of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, but Marco Bellocchio's "Vincere" tells of another period during the Fascist's life. Or rather, not his life, but the existence of his first wife Ida Dalser. Played to a tee by Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Ida met Benito (Filippo Timi) back when he was the editor of socialist newspaper Avanti. It was right before WWI when the future Il Duce broke away from the socialists and established the newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia. Not only that, having gotten injured in the war, Mussolini dumped Ida and Benito Jr. for his more famous wife Rachele (Michela Cescon).

It this point, the movie shifts entirely to Ida and Benito Jr., while Mussolini is seen only in newsreels. It's as if Ida represents the common person in Italy. Whereas Mussolini used to be a common person, he suddenly becomes the distant, bombastic authority figure. Ida, meanwhile, is thrown into a mental institution. As her sanity deteriorates further and further, accompanied by the frigid weather, one gets a sense of what would soon happen to Italy.

I had never known about this whole part of history, but it's good that the movie is recounting it. Without a doubt, this story serves to show what a megalomaniac Il Duce was - to say the least. But above all, it's important that we learn about the past so as not to repeat the mistakes.

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.

The extraordinary story of Mussolini's first wife and oldest son (weren't they? are we sure?) is brilliantly realized by the noted Italian director/scenarist Marco Bellocchio. The film (translated as "Win" into English, though I'd prefer "Conquer" or maybe best, "Vanquish") pays homage to the Post-WWII Italian "realismo" of Rosselini, DeSica and others. It's replete with harsh and grainy newsreel footage of the "real" "Il Duce," a big, ambitious musical score, and relentlessly dark cinematography. When a picnic scene comes along 2/3rds of the way through the film, the bright sunshine of daytime is almost shocking.

It is, of course, an anti-Fascist statement, but it's told not through the politics of the times, but through the eyes of Ida Dalser, who is passionately in love with Mussolini's charisma and passion (but not necessarily his politics.) She sacrifices for her love, only to be shunted aside like a minor pawn in Il Duce's path of triumph.

Is Ida the precursor of the Italian people themselves, also seduced by Mussolini's considerable charisma? Is her son, Benito Albino, a metaphor for all Italy? Perhaps it doesn't matter. But I did see Ida not as a Fascist sympathizer but as a sympathetic figure. Mussolini, it seems clear, really doesn't care at all about her except for the considerable passion between them. And, like Italy, when he got what he wanted, he moved on.

By the way, did I mention how fabulous and sumptuous Giovanna Mezzogiorno is? Though she's a veteran actress, I'd never seen her before, but I'd see her again - mezzogiorno, matina, or notte. Reminiscent of Binoche, she carries the movie with her presence.

The film is absolutely horrible, the inter-cutting of old and new footage is just confusing, it does not get into the characters, it just lets them be there.

The acting is not in anyway good. They decided to not use any money at all and not put any effort into it,

bombs are not only fog,

and they don't even try to age anyone.

It feels like a propaganda film.

The visuals do not match up if they wanted it to match up with the old footage they would have made it black and white!