Product Details

• Actors: Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Filippo Timi, Corrado Invernizzi, Fausto Russo Alesi, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio
• Directors: Marco Bellocchio
• Writers: Marco Bellocchio, Daniela Caselli
• Producers: Mario Gianani
• Format: Subtitled, NTSC, Color, Widescreen
• Language: Italian
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: IFC Independent Film
• DVD Release Date: July 27, 2010
• Run Time: 128 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B003JHXS8C
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #96,324 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Vincere" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Synopsis:
Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: NR
Street Date: 07/27/10
Wide Screen: yes
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
LanguageENGLISH
Foreign Film: yes
Subtitlesyes
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve Please note: This supplier will be closed on 11/24, 11/25, 12/26, 1/2 for the holidays. The shipping cut off is 12/10 to try and have the products delivered by Christmas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Marco Bellocchio's Dark View of Mussolini's Private Life, May 16, 2010

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vincere (DVD)

Marco Bellocchio directed and wrote (with Daniela Ceselli) this very dark version of the private life of Benito Mussolini, a portion of his life that centered on his mistress and the mother of his son, one Ida Dalser. Though the film never really reveals whether Ida Dasler and Mussolini were married (Mussolini already had a wife and child when he me the devastatingly beautiful and erotic Ida) but that simply doesn't seem to matter while watching this artistic triumph of a film. What the director does manage to portray is the life and times of Italy before, during, and after WW I, a time during which Mussolini began his influence as a socialist and ultimately founded Italian Fascism, becoming the Fascist dictator of Italy. The many permutations of the concepts of monarchism and socialism and eventually Fascism are delineated by the film, if at times as shadowy in their explanation as is the director's love of dark in lighting the screen during almost all of the action. Bellocchio uses black and white film clips throughout his film giving it a somewhat documentary flair, but the performances by the actors make this film very much a visceral drama and not a dry rehash of history.

Filippo Timi gives a gripping performance as both Mussolini the ardent and handsome lover and politician whose life is always controlled by the term 'Vincere' ('Win'). Aptly, when the bulky monster Mussolini rises out of the socialism into fascism and the war the part of Mussolini is 'played' by the film clips of the real person. But as the film draws toward the end of his life, Timi once again enters the film in the role of his son Benito Albino Mussolini, a lad stricken with insanity and confined to a sanitarium. As Mussolini's mistress (aka 'wife' by her accounts) Ida Dalser, Giovanna Mezzogiorno offers one of the strongest cinematic portrayals of an important woman of history. She is simply riveting - erotic when the romance begins, faithful even when she discovers Mussolini has a wife, and uncontrollably fierce as she is confined by the government (with Mussolini's approval) to an insane asylum. This is one of those performances that will live in memory long after this film is seen and hopefully will garner awards when the Oscar season comes round.

In all this is a beautifully wrought, intelligent, beautifully acted, occasionally confusing melodrama that sheds light on the man Mussolini, his rise to power, and the women who came under his influence. Recommended. Grady Harp, May 10

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An act of resistance, May 21, 2010

By 

inderweltsein (France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vincere (DVD)

Through the struggle of this woman, Vincere is not only a critique of fascism and the dictatorship of Mussolini.. It is too a real hymn to cinema as a medium conveying meaning in an alienated world. In this point of view, it is by itself an act of resistance, in a world invaded by advertisements, and whose Imaginary is colonized by the society of the spectacle.

Bellocchio offers us an operatic tour de force. Performance by both actors is exceptionnal, but especially from Giovanna Mezzogiorno, amazingly inhabited in the role of her young career, on par with Falconetti in Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc. It is a performance and a movie that would indeniably have deserved more prizes, had Cannes 2009 jury been fair, or had Italy selected it as the Italian candidate for the 2010 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Movie, instead of a more commercial one.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mussolini's method and madness explored in Vincere, July 4, 2010

By 

John Black (North Quincy, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vincere (DVD)

You may not learn a lot of historical facts surrounding the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's reign by watching director Marco Bellocchio's latest film, Vincere. But you will be highly entertained.

It's not that there isn't a lot of history packed into the film; it's just that because it was made for an Italian audience there isn't a lot of explanation or perspective given to the facts it presents. But so what? Ten minutes of watching Bellocchio's Mussolini work his way up the ranks of Italian politics will have you making a mental note to get a biography of the man from Amazon.com when you get home.

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