Ida Alser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and Benito Mussolini (Filippo Timi) have a tumultuous relationship in VINCERE
VINCERE (Marco Bellocchio, 2009)
Opens Friday, March 19
IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. at Third St., 212-924-7771
Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, 1886 Broadway at 63rd St., 212-757-2280
www.ifcfilms.com/films/vincere
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In the historical romantic drama VINCERE (WIN), Italian master filmmaker Marco Bellocchio delivers the little-known real-life story of Ida Alser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), Benito Mussolini’s (Filippo Timi) first wife and the mother of Il Duce’s first-born son, Benito Albino (Fabrizio Costella). Alser and Mussolini first meet in Milan in 1907, when she is a fashion and beauty entrepreneur and he is a newspaper journalist championing a religion-free Socialist. They feel an immediate connection and have passionate meetings. Soon they have a child and are married. But as Mussolini’s power in the Fascist movement grows, he takes a more traditional wife (Michela Cescon) and has another child, disavowing any relationship with Ida and young Benito and going to any lengths to cover up their very existence. Set amid the swirling turmoil that pervaded Italy during the two World Wars, VINCERE, featuring an epic score by Carlo Crivelli, is a beautifully shot melodrama, able to focus on two strong, unrelenting characters who know what they want – and what they don’t. Bellocchio (FISTS IN THE POCKET, DEVIL IN THE FLESH) interweaves archival newsreel footage, lending the film not only more reality but firmly placing it in historical context. Mezzogiorno is brilliant as Alser, a modern-day woman ahead of her time who fought for what she believed in and what she deserved, even if it meant going up against one of the most powerful men in the world.