Vincere 2009

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The movie, a near-masterpiece, is a monument to intoxication: of sexual conquest, of military conquest, and, most of all, of cinema. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: Bellocchio's talent for expressive visuals is everywhere in evidence. It's the script that needs more balance. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: Bellocchio has turned the story of Mussolini's discarded wife and son into a movie that has some of the bully swagger and excess of Il Duce himself. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Vincere starts to run dry of stunning visual gambits and become redundant in its second hour, as the madhouse sequences dominate, but Bellocchio's central premise retains its power and poignancy throughout. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Bellocchio's priorities are electrically clear. Sensation, sensation, sensation. The effect is a rare kind of moviegoing chaos. Are we to laugh, cry, scratch our temples, or grab our dates? In the spirit of the movie, do them all at once. Read more

Joshua Katzman, Chicago Reader: Carol Crivelli's soaring classical score heightens Bellochio's operatic tendencies. Read more

Glenn Whipp, Associated Press: Bellocchio tells the film's historical story in an electrifying fashion, mixing in newsreel footage, on-screen slogans and Futurist art, a bit of thunder and lightning and Carlo Crivelli's boom-boom score. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Here, in microcosm, is the tragedy of totalitarianism and its impact on the human soul. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: A passionate, bold look at power, paranoia and betrayal in a little-known corner of history, Vincere is steamy, sad and so Italian it feels like an opera. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Mezzogiorno plays Dalser with the kind of fervent intensity once seen in silent films... Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: An intense and intriguing, if at times uneven, film with Italian director Marco Bellocchio wringing every drop of emotion out of his actors and his audience before it is over. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Her story is one of endurance and martyrdom, and Bellocchio treats her with grave courtesy, focussing on her battered face as she is subjected to years of beatings in the asylum, and on her drive to escape. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: There's visual poetry here and haunted performances from Mezzogiorno and Timi -- who plays two roles, and is especially gripping as Dalser 1/2 1/2s grown son. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: Bellocchio's bigger-than-life story requires over-the-top performances, which are provided by Giovanna Mezzogiorno as Ida and Filippo Timi as the young Mussolini and, later, his grown son. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: With wild collages of newsreel footage, swirling newspaper headlines, text, and music, Bellocchio fashions a melodrama of epic proportions. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The brave and unflinching performance of Giovanna Mezzogiorno is the foundation upon which the bedrock of Vincere rests. She's the heart and soul of the film. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The film is beautifully well-mounted. The locations, the sets, the costumes, everything conspire to re-create the Rome of that time. It provides a counterpoint to the usual caricature of Mussolini. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Giovanna Mezzogiorno plays Ida, and if you know Mezzogiorno you know instantly why this film is worth seeing. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Vincere is a thrilling period drama about the power of delusions. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The untold story of how fascist strongman Benito Mussolini rose to power by trampling on the woman who loved him is a bracingly cinematic lesson in how all politics is personal. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: An astute study of amour fou and a cautionary tale about how the worship of false idols can lead to personal and national collapse. Read more

Rob Nelson, Village Voice: A movie whose audacious editing fully captures the hot and heavy relationships between past and present, sex and politics, reality and, yes, cinema. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's grand, heartbreaking material, made even more riveting by the fact that it is very likely true. Read more