Disregarding courtroom verdicts, Paolo Sorrentino delves into the murkier recesses off the corridors of power in this damning indictment of Giulio Andreotti, who governed Italy between 1972 and ’92. Played with monstrous impassivity by Toni Servillo, Andreotti is portrayed as a pitiless pragmatist and control freak.
Connecting Andreotti to Mafia crimes, Sorrentino sets the agenda in a chilling montage recalling the assassination of high-profile figures and continues the offensive in the climactic investigation into the 1990s Bribesville scandal. But nothing beats Livia Andreotti’s expression, as she realises how little she knows about her husband of 50 years. Superbly cinematic.
