The Cannes International film festival is now in full swing and we were eagerly waiting for the screening of Italian movie director Marco Bellocchio’s Vincere or To Win, which took place yesterday; the movie which tells the story of Benito Mussolini’s first love caused quite a stir and the reviews were not particularly good.
Mr Bellocchio tried to shed a new light on this lesser known episode in Mussolini’s life.
I’m sure that many of you didn’t know that Mussolini ‘s first marriage ended up in tragedy with the young wife called Ida Dalser locked up in an asylum for life.
Estranged from his husband (who abandoned her for good when the Fist World War broke out) and her child, the poor girl went through hell and died alone and forgotten.
Not better fared the child Benito Albino who lived in a poorhouse for years.
On the whole it’s a dark movie which tries to chart the life of this unhappy woman who instantly fell in love with Benito on a train and did her best to help him in his political career, giving him all her money to finance his newspaper Il Popolo d’Italia.
In return, the Duce treated her cruelly, systematically trying to eliminate these facts (marriage included) from his life.
She was maltreated, stalked and eventually locked up in a lunatic bin for life.
The movie is roughly based on two books respectively called Mussolin’s Marriage by Marco Zeni and Mussolini’s Secret Child by Alfredo Pieroni, and on Fabrizio Laurenti and Gianfranco Norelli’s documentary film Mussolini’s Secret.
Actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno plays Ida Dalser, the first wife, while actor Filippo Timi plays two roles, the young Mussolini and in the second part of the movie Mussolini’ s secret son, Benito Albino.
Despite the faults in the movie, both actors did a great job and their performances left one thirsty for more.