Mussolini: Falling in love with the Duce

Filippo Timi is just the latest on a very long list of actors who have played the role of Benito Mussolini. Il Duce is a character who lends himself well to cinema, and the reasons why a whole country put its destiny in the hands of a megalomaniac lunatic are in a way easier to comprehend for showbiz experts than historians. The myth of the great speaker, seductive tombeur de femmes, passionate lover, and warrior has never been questioned in Italian cinema, which has always made fun of fascist followers rather than the Duce himself. This would seem to respect the fact that Italians were genuinely in love with him and took pride in Fascist liturgies - which now seem as ridiculous as when Charlie Chaplin depicted them in The Great Dictator, to this day the best film ever made on the two most tragic and comical characters of contemporary history.

While international cinema has represented Mussolini since 1940 (with The Great Dictator), it was only in the 60s that Italian fiction started dealing with this figure, preferring a more serious, dramatic approach. Vincere also follows this path. It tells the story of a woman whose dedication to Mussolini, which started long before he became the Duce, is absolutely totalitarian. Ida Dalser was an emancipated, modern woman who sold all her fortunes to support her young, revolutionary socialist, anticlerical husband Benito. When he later repudiated her and her son, Ida did not give up and tried to get him back in any way possible, becoming so dangerous to his rise that he had her committed to an asylum, where she died, the symbol of a country that blindly followed its leader to a catastrophic end.

Filippo Timi, this year’s big rising star of Italian cinema, is handsome and charming, as charming as Rod Steiger was in Mussolini: ultimo atto, by Carlo Lizzani, or Bob Hoskins in Mussolini and I, on the tragic betrayal of his son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano. In 1993 the then brand new star Antonio Banderas played a young Benito who was basically interested in women and revolution, making him so nice that it aroused protests. This now forgotten TV series marked the end of a few taboos on the way Fascism is perceived by Italians: a mixture of repulsion and pride that can too often be summarized in the common belief that he did many good things for his country before the alliance with Hitler, the real bad guy. A small masterpiece that came out recently, Fascists on Mars, by former TV star Corrado Guzzanti (he was fired from public television after Berlusconi was elected), underlines the way fascist culture still affects Italians’ political views: the immaturity, the desire for a strong leader to follow, and the need for a charismatic figure to make them proud. By the way, it’s a funny coincidence that this film is being released while Berlusconi is struggling with all the fuss over his supposed affair with an underage girl. If we were to believe the image of the Duce as the archetypal Latin lover, we might see once again the truth behind the common saying: “History always repeats itself twice, only the first time it’s tragic and the second time it’s a farce”.

Marta Musso