Il Divo

Il Divo is an utterly fantastic exploration of the political life of seven-times Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, who entered the government in 1947 and whose party, the Christian Democrats, remained in power for 44 years until they were ousted in the Tagentopoli scandals.

Andreotti, accused of every political misdemeanour imaginable (including harbouring mafia connections) has curiously been cleared of all wrongdoing, and until now the charges have been barely spoken about. Writer/director Paolo Sorrentino effectively uses this dramatisation to return those allegations to Andreotti's doorstep.

In the Andreotti role is Tony Servillo: masterful, largely impenetrable, half-repellent, half-magnetic and first encountered with acupuncture needles in his face. This gives some indication of Sorrentino's pace, interspersing fast, rock-scored assassinations with quiet, gentler scenes that are no less devastating. Consider, for instance, the moment when Andreotti's wife Livia (Anna Bonaiuto), sitting holding hands and watching television with her husband, realises that despite all their years together, she does not know him at all.

It's precisely this partnership of the personal and the public that brings a sense of impeccable balance to Sorrentino's movie, a level-headedness that tempers the passionate dislike of its subject; this is, one suspects, less about film direction than a dog chasing Andreotti's scent. ·