Hammamet

Who controls the present controls the past, Orwell wrote in 1984.This movie is a courageous attempt to restore Bettino Craxi as a human being, after having been politically destroyed by left-wing judges in the only judiciary-driven coup of Italian history. In itself is not much more than a documentary but Favino puts such heart and soul into his character that makes the movie enjoyable and didactic.

If you don't know much about Bettino Craxi's life and political actions, it can be quite difficult to keep up with the story of this film. The story concentrates only on the character of Craxi and his point of view on the scandal that he was part of. Gianni Amelio tried to compose this film basically only from the thoughts and philosophical monologues of Craxi without any real plot or twist, which I must say became pretty tiresome after 60 minutes. It is obvious the whole film heavily relies on Pierfrancesco Favino as Craxi (who was simply masterful), but I wish it had more to it than just a great acting performance. I was also questioned by the mysterious character of the son of one of Craxi's former friends, who seeks truth about Craxi and also his own father. Perhaps this character should represent viewers or people affected by his actions also looking for the truth, but it felt like this character didn't really fit the whole atmosphere of this picture. If it had been at least 15 minutes shorter I would have mabe recommended it, but in spite of Favino's great performance this film feels quite forgettable.

Main actor is great, movie has some nice parts but the pace is slow and expecially at the end loses grip. Maybe it needs a better cut. How accurate its' historically is also a nice question....

The movie doesn't talk about politics, doesn't talk about the rise and the fall of the Socialist party, doesn't even talk about the interesting part of Craxi's life. Technically speaking it's really well-made, but where is the plot?

Most contemporary Italian movies suffer from lack of a tight script or at the very least a story with a start, middle and ending. Way too often they are assembled as a series of loosely knit sketches or rambling, confused tales. This one belongs to the second category.

After a promising start, where the Italian Socialist leader Craxi is shown at the height of his power, the scene changes abruptly to Hammamet several years later, with the politician as a broken, disgraced, sick man living in a large villa with tight security. I had to read the synopsis to learn that none of the "real" people involved in the story are called with their real names (?) for unspecified reasons and it is only because I have a vague knowledge of the facts that I know how Craxi ended up in Tunisia.

However, the narrative fails miserably in the "show, don't tell" department, with relevant episodes of the past narrated by Craxi to the fictional character of a half crazy son of an ex-party member. This part of the plot, with the crazy guy filming Craxi's narration of his memory is irritating because one doesn't get a coherent story.

One must be an expert of Italian history in the late 80s/early 90s to understand what happened, otherwise it's next to impossible to follow (even for me, and I am Italian).

Even more irritating are the vapid dialogues of Craxi and the annoying grandchild, the dragged scenes on the beach and around Hammamet, all skimming the surface and never getting to the point - but what was supposed to be the point? The only positive note is main character, the unnamed President (aka Craxi) played with astonishing resemblance to the real person by a very chameleonic actor who disappears in the part. The rest is diluted fluff.