Simon Mein/Sony Pictures Classics
The 2010 movie year played out in predictable fashion, with a lot of noteworthy gems submerged beneath the usual Hollywood garbage and the occasional big studio success story sprinkled in for good measure. For adventurous moviegoers, those willing to break free from the bonds of mass-marketed, 3-D-centric product, the year offered its share of rewards, with a strong crop of documentaries and some characteristically fine work from well-established directors leading the pack.
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Gianranco Mura/IFC Films
Filmmaker Marco Bellocchio has been tackling some of the thorniest aspects of the Italian national psyche since his 1965 debut "Fists in the Pocket." He has yet to show signs of slowing down, crafting vital cinema throughout the past two decades. Through the story of an atheist son coming to terms with his mother's candidacy for sainthood, "My Mother's Smile" energized Mr. Bellochio's recurring themes of the church and the nuclear family. "Good Morning, Night" explored the Red Brigade's 1978 kidnap and assassination of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro. "The Wedding Director" lampooned a national cinema unable to reclaim its past neorealist glory. His latest, "Vincere," takes on none other than the infamous fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
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MOVIE REVIEW
Vincere (2009)
Festival de Cannes
Marco Bellocchio has tackled some of Italy’s most delicate historical and religious subjects with an inspired touch of surrealism. “Good Morning, Night,” Mr. Bellocchio’s treatment of the Red Brigade’s 1978 kidnapping and murder of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro, took that singular event and expanded it into a broader allegory of a turbulent chapter in Italian history. Similarly, “Vincere” extrapolates Benito Mussolini’s ill-fated first marriage into a cautionary tale about the price of absolute power.
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