Berlusconi and bunga bunga by Sorrentino

(ANSA) – Rome, March 12 – The voice is wincingly identical, sounding like a powerful man on the wane or vaguely depressed, or a phoenix. The trailer for Loro (Them), a new and eagerly awaited film by Italian director Paolo Sorrentino on former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, played by Toni Servillo, has come seven days after parliamentary election results. Did the Oscar-winning director of The Great Beauty , in telling about the political leader and his lifestyle, think also about his public longevity? The first few scenes are those to be expected: wild poolside parties, a crowd of girls wiggling their hips as he watches, a government meeting with President Napolitano, sports trophies on display in his living room, a very sad Veronica Lario, his ex-wife (Elena Sofia Ricci) and even his poodle Dudù.
    Everything, however, is pervaded by an atmosphere reminiscent of the final days of Pompeii. ‘’But what did you expect, to be able to be the richest man in the country, be the prime minister and that everyone would also cherish unbridled love for you?’’ a voice with a northern Italian accent asks him.
    ‘’Yes. I was expecting exactly this,’’ the former prime minister said. The film, which will have its international debut at the Cannes film festival and for which a date to come out in cinemas has not yet been announced, is a French-Italian co-production: Indigo Film for Italy and Pathé and France 2 Cinéma for France. In Italy it will be distributed by Universal Pictures International Italy for Focus Features, while Pathé will be tasked with international sales. The casts includes Riccardo Scamarcio, Chiara Iezzi, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Elena Sofia Ricci, Roberto Herlitzka, Ricky Memphis, Roberto De Francesco, Dario Cantarelli and Alessia Fabiani.
    ‘’Why did I chose to make a film on Berlusconi? Because I am Italian and I want to make films on Italians. Berlusconi is an archetype of Italianness and it is possible to talk about Italians through him,’’ Sorrentino said last May about the project on the founder of the Forza Italia (FI) party. The story, written with Umberto Contarello, is of Berlusconi and his entourage, the ‘them’ of the title. In October 2017, Berlusconi said that he hoped the film would ‘’not be a political attack on me’’.