Conspiração ao Poder

As with many things in life, the devil is in the detail, and this film fails massively in that area.

Actually, it doesn't even get out of the starting gate because its title is grammatically incorrect. It should be "Mussolini And Me", not "Mussolini And I". I have no interest in watching an English language production where the scriptwriters, producers etc. can't even get such basic grammar right. Nonetheless, I watched twenty minutes before deciding that my initial assessment was correct, and that the film makers had paid no attention to any sort of detail, or character development. The reviewers who likened this to Dynasty, or a Venezuelan soap opera, had it about right.

Presumably the rest of the film is littered with similar lack of attention to detail as the title and the first twenty minutes, but I have to be honest and say that I neither know nor care.

The problem with old mini-series is that they often do not come with close captions or subtitles which help the hearing impaired. The different accents of the international cast also made the dialog difficult to follow. Consequently, much of what they were saying was unintelligible and I found myself admiring the costumes, scenery and sets. Not that all this mattered in the end as the plot was so ludicrous it could have passed for an episode of Dynasty. I waited in vain for Joan Collins to show up and punch at least one of the women in the face.

Another problem was the casting of over exposed actors. If you don't care much for Anthony Hopkins, you are out of luck, because he is notching up as many appearances as John Gielgud. They will be carrying him on-stage in his 90's before long. In this film he played an Italian Count who apparently never met a woman he did not attempt to seduce. Bob Hoskins, another very good but over-exposed actor played Mussolini as if he was still in character for Harold Shand (The Long Good Friday) and sounded like an East London bookie at the racetrack.

At one point, Mussolini mused that if he pardoned his son-in-law, the Germans would despise them for acting like Italians. Shortly after, Signora Mussolini went to visit his mistress, Clara, armed with a small handgun. While the Signora was beating on the door, and the mistress trying to hide, the German guard was frantically calling Il Duce and asking what to do - the melodrama had me laughing out loud.

If Mistral's daughter and Princess Daisy is your cup of tea, you will enjoy this mini-series. I have no idea how historically accurate it was.

The shame of this production is that it treats one of history's most successful mass murderers with downright affection. It comes across as a black shirt recruitment film.

I have no problem with biographies that treat historical figures as complex human beings. In fact I think it is important to treat history with respect. I do think we need to be shown the complete story, however. Mussolini and I never shows us the brutality of the fascist regime. We are not really shown the torture chambers, the concentration camps or the complete collaboration the Italians gave the Germans in putting together their FINAL SOLUTION.

The series builds empathy for the mussolini clan. Hoskins delivers a portrayal of Benito ("Benny") as a man of conscience and morality. The other poles of sympathy are Hopkins as the spineless administrator who helped keep Mussolini in power for 22 god awful years.

If this were a series made today about Saddam Hussein viewers and reviewers would be in an uproar. The producers would be crucified for their fascist leanings.

Most people remember Benito Mussolini simply as Hitler's ally in WWII. "Mussolini and I" shows his family life during his years as Italy's leader. Starring Bob Hoskins as the Fascist himself, Susan Sarandon plays his daughter Edda, who married Count Galeazzo Ciano (Anthony Hopkins). Among other things, the movie shows not only how the relationships among these people were always shaky, but also that Mussolini and Hitler didn't totally trust each other.

Towards the war's end, Il Duce had Count Ciano executed, and shortly thereafter, Il Duce himself was of course arrested and executed. Edda escaped to Switzerland and survived the war. It's too bad that Mussolini was already dead when they hung him on the meat hook.

Very well done.

I've watched 30 minutes of this movie skipping the interminable opening credits and stopped the whole thing. My goodness! Was Hitler one of the descendant of an English Lord?Was he a student at Oxford? Does the director of this flop has ever watched the many newsreels showing the Fuhrer speaking and shouting?

From this on it was obvious that the whole production would be a masterpiece of historical errors or flaws.

There is today a tendency in the world's movie industry to treat history as a secondary subject where you can do whatever you want as long as you make money and where accuracy to historical facts and characters is considered as something unimportant.

Americans were at one time the masters of such behavior especially if the historical facts did not concern their own country, now the disease has spread all over the world but perhaps in Germany which up to now has had the courage to produce movies showing without indulgence the horrors which took place on its soil between 1930 and 1945.

That we Europeans be not able to consider with honesty our faults, our mistakes or worse, is a very dangerous symptom of ethical failure on our part.