Videocracy

I respect the opinion of viewers that wished for a more detailed explanation of how Berlusconi ascended to power imposing his videocracy on the whole Country. On the other hand, who let him do that and why is still debated in Italy and abroad, subject to political interpretation and therefore a quite tedious and convoluted story to tell. The audience here gets to experience the Italian TV and media dominated reality from a purely naturalistic angle, almost like an ethologist would look at a society of ants. The movie, I believe, is a lot more powerful and compelling that way: the viewers can go through all the the feelings of incredulity, anguish, disgust, pity and anger it generates without anyone saying out loud that they should, making those feelings all the more intense and true.

Well, I must say I expected more from this movie after having seen the trailer. The documentary is quite slow for all the 85 minutes, and lacks explanations: why most Italians base their information access on television? how did the private TV channels owned by Berlusconi became so big? We just see the beginning 30 years ago, and the situation now... how was the evolution in between? Basically the movie gives just 2 examples to explain the result of the cultural change gained in the last years by Italian television: first the simple guy working in a factory who drams of getting on television; second is Fabrizio Corona, who is basically an asshole paparazzi gangster, exploiting famous people to own money and become famous himself. In my opinion this movie puts some light on the situation Italy is in, avoiding going deeper to the roots. It would have been easy to tell, show, explain and discuss much more... that's why it's just 5/10.

After reading other reviews i decided to register in IMDb and vote for this film myself. Watching the film was a unique experience for me. I was excited and shocked at the images on the screen. The film is not a "normal" activist documentary where the filmmaker tells you what to think and what to feel in plain words. It takes you into a different culture that looks like it was brought to it's knees with the power of television and the use of women sexuality.

Living in Israel i am used to criticize my own country and watching films about it. Never mind the minor details the movie misses. It is true to it's artistic roots and in it's search for truth it shows the evil that lies behind the smile of Mr. Berlusconi. In my opinion this movie is a masterpiece.

It feels as if it was put together in five minutes. Pity because the idea is great if not particularly new. Depressing as hell to think that, somehow, this reality represent us and I'm afraid it does. It is a decease of our own making. It's in our DNA, if you don't believe me listen to Mario Monicelli in his interview at Otto e Mezzo. "We're a country of "miserabili" (miserables). As long as someone has the guts to say it, there is hope. Here, the statement comes from Sweden of all places and seems amazed at things that us in Italy know perfectly well and complain about, perhaps, but in private. I think that Berlusconi truly represents the majority of Italians even those who don't want to admit it. Lele Mora gave me the chills and Fabrizio Corona who comes from a very intelligent, prominent journalistic family comes across as an ignorant product of his day. He indulges in a long naked scene, soaping his privates under the shower. What the hell was that!? We're suppose to be the Country of culture par excellence, how funny. We're the Country of the façade instead. We love cinema but we dub it, robbing the souls of the original actors, not just their voices. We divide the projections of films, arbitrarily, in Primo Tempo e Secondo Tempo (First Part and Second Part). We really don't give a damn and some of the consequences are painfully clear in "Videocracy" I only wish this documentary could be taken a bit more seriously.

what strikes me about the reviews is the shock of people in the US who feel that this monopoly is so different from the so called 2 party system here in the US. first off, things aren't much better in this country with regards to poor taste, exploitation of women, and a cattle like docility of the population. 2ndly, at least ital isn't so involved in slaughtering millions around the globe. while there's shock aplenty when those numbers come up at the end giving Italy's stature in rank among countries in the world for issues such as "freedom" and "sexual equality" I can't imagine that the US is all that far ahead. in fact, "freedom" seems like such a slippery concept... the health care problems here mean far less freedom to have live all that long in this country, our educational system is becoming so exclusive, while belonging in the EU, any citizen of Italy can study at any major university in the entire EU for free, that kind of empowerment can engender freedom of a sort people here can only long for.

The movie did move pretty slowly at times and more information might have been conveyed at the expense of long shots that didn't really use up the screen time all that convincingly.