Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T14:03:30.341Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Viral (per)versions of power in Paolo Sorrentino's diptych Loro

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2020

Annachiara Mariani Open the ORCID record for Annachiara Mariani [Opens in a new window]
Annachiara Mariani*
Affiliation:
Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA
*
*Email: amariani@utk.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines Paolo Sorrentino's portrayal of moral degradation and pursuit of power in his twin biopics about Silvio Berlusconi: Loro 1 and Loro 2 (2018). It does so by performing a psychological reading of Sorrentino's representation of Berlusconi, as someone suffering from a personality disorder characterised by excessive power striving. It argues that this obsession with power also affects most of the films’ characters, who become obsessed with entering Berlusconi's inner circle – the pinnacle of wealth and power in a neoliberal society. In particular, it argues that their power striving circulates ‘virally’ in the film's narrative; the characters are willing to do anything to befriend their idol and attain absolute power. The ensuing analysis shows that Sorrentino's portrayal of Berlusconi – as the embodiment of a highly dysfunctional and obsessive, viral quest for power – comes to represent the deep pervasiveness of corruption, hedonism and commodification that marked the Second Republic.

Questo articolo esamina la rappresentazione del degrado morale e la ricerca del potere nei due film biografici di Paolo Sorrentino su Silvio Berlusconi: Loro 1 e Loro 2 (2018). Partendo dal presupposto che il personaggio soffra di un disturbo di personalità legato all'eccesiva dipendenza dal potere, si evince che questa ossessione si diffonde tra gli altri personaggi del film e dilaga nella diegesi con la forza di una pandemia scatenata da un virus indotto dal fascino per Berlusconi. Infatti, nel film il magnate simboleggia l'oro, l'apice della ricchezza e del potere neoliberista a cui tutti aspirano e ne sono contagiati come in una pandemia psicologica. L'articolo sottolinea come l'entourage di Berlusconi sia disposto a piegarsi a qualsiasi servigio pur di emulare il proprio idolo e raggiungere il potere. L'argomentazione illustra come, per Sorrentino, Berlusconi raffiguri la capillarità della corruzione, dell'edonismo e della mercificazione che hanno caratterizzato la Seconda Repubblica italiana.

Keywords

SorrentinomegalomaniapowerneoliberalismbiopicBerlusconi
Type
Research Articles
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , August 2020 , pp. 299 - 315
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antonello, P. 2010. ‘The Ambiguity of Realism and its Posts: A Response to Millicent Marcus’. The Italianist 30 (2): 258–62.Google Scholar
Ariano, R. 2018. ‘Portraying the Black Pope: Style and Politics in Paolo Sorrentino's Il Divo’. The Italianist 38 (2): 221–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bassi, S. 2018. ‘Whose Comatose Girlfriend? Figures of Crisis in Neoliberal Italy’. Modern Languages Open (1): 1–12.Google Scholar
Belpoliti, M. 2018. ‘Servillo: “Servono idee per superare l'ossessione Berlusconi”’. Repubblica.it, 12 May, https://rep.repubblica.it/pwa/intervista/2018/05/12/news/_servillo_servono_idee_per_superare_l_ossessione_berlusconi_-196233031/?refresh_ce. Accessed 12 February 2020.Google Scholar
Bingham, D., Project Muse and ProQuest. 2010. Whose Lives Are They Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Bonsaver, G. 2009. ‘Dall'uomo al Divo: un'intervista con Paolo Sorrentino’. The Italianist 29 (2): 325–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charny, I. 1997. ‘A Personality Disorder of Excessive Power Strivings’. Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences 34: 3–15.Google ScholarPubMed
Cheshire, E. 2015. Bio-pics: A Life in Pictures. London: Wallflower.Google Scholar
Coolidge, F. and Segal, D.. 2009. ‘Is Kim Jong-il like Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler? A Personality Disorder Evaluation’. Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression 1 (3): 195–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dei, F. 2011. ‘Pop-politica: le basi culturali del berlusconismo’. Studi culturali 8 (3): 471–90.Google Scholar
Deleuze, G. 1983. Cinema I: The Movement-Image. Translated by Tomlinson, H. and Habberjam, B.. London: Athlone.Google Scholar
Dominijanni, I. 2014. Il trucco: Sessualità e biopolitica nella fine di Berlusconi. Rome: Ediesse.Google Scholar
Ebiri, B. 2019. ‘Paolo Sorrentino's Loro Made Me Feel Dirty. I Can't Wait to See it Again’. Vulture Movie Report, 19 September, https://www.vulture.com/2019/09/loro-movie-review-paolo-sorrentino-portrait-of-berlusconi.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=vulture&utm_source=tw. Accessed 1 October 2019.Google Scholar
Emmott, B. 2012. Good Italy, Bad Italy: Why Italy Must Conquer its Demons to Face the Future. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Finos, A. 2018. ‘Abbiamo visto Loro 1 di Sorrentino: “il mio Berlusconi tra tenerezza e mistero”’. Repubblica.it, 23 April, https://www.repubblica.it/spettacoli/cinema/2018/04/23/news/abbiamo_visto_loro_silvio_berlusconi_secondo_paolo_sorrentino-194607453/. Accessed 23 February 2020.Google Scholar
Genovese, R. 2011. Che cos’è il Berlusconismo. Rome: Manifesto libri.Google Scholar
Gill, R. 2008. ‘Empowerment/Sexism: Figuring Female Sexual Agency in Contemporary Advertising’. Feminism & Psychology 18 (1): 35–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giuffrida, A. 2018. ‘Berlusconi Biopic Loro is a Tender Look at the Weaknesses of an Old Man’. The Guardian, 3 May, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/03/berlusconi-biopic-loro-is-a-tender-look-at-the-weaknesses-of-an-old-man-paolo-sorrentino. Accessed 26 April 2020.Google Scholar
Goldman, J. 2011. ‘The Psychology of Dictatorship: Kim Jong-Il’. Scientific American, 19 December, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/thoughtful-animal/the-psychology-of-dictatorship-kim-jong-il/. Accessed 17 February 2020.Google Scholar
Haas, L. 2019. ‘Paolo Sorrentino's Loro Will Make You Feel Complicit’. The New Republic, 19 September, https://newrepublic.com/article/154954/paolo-sorrentino-loro-review-complicity-silvio-berlusconi. Accessed 17 February 2020.Google Scholar
Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J.T. and Rapson, R.L.. 1992. Emotional Contagion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hipkins, D. 2008. ‘Why Italian Film Studies Needs a Second Take on Gender’. Italian Studies 63 (2): 213–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landy, M. 2014. ‘Il Divo, the Biopic, Counter-history, and Cine/politics in the Twenty-first Century’. In The Biopic in Contemporary Film Culture, edited by Brown, T. and Belén, V., 244–58. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Loudis, J. 2018. ‘Editor's Note: Megalomania’. World Policy Journal 35: 1–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackay, J. 2018. ‘Loro is a Fascinating, Flawed Look at an Aging Demagogue’. Little White Lies, 22 May, https://lwlies.com/articles/loro-review-silvio-berlusconi-paolo-sorrentino/. Accessed 1 March 2020.Google Scholar
McRobbie, A. 2004. ‘Post-Feminism and Popular Culture’. Feminist Media Studies 4 (3): 255–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McRobbie, A. 2009. The Aftermath of Feminism, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Mammone, A. and Veltri, G.. 2010. Italy Today: The Sick Man of Europe. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcucci, E. 2018. ‘Loro: Toni Servillo è Berlusconi nel primo teaser del film di Sorrentino’. La scimmia pensa, 12 March, https://www.lascimmiapensa.com/2018/03/12/loro-teaser/. Accessed 18 February 2020.Google Scholar
Marcus, M. 2010a. ‘The Ironist and the Auteur: Post-Realism in Paolo Sorrentino's Il Divo’. The Italianist 30 (2): 245–57.Google Scholar
Marcus, M. 2010b. ‘A reply to Pierpaolo Antonello and Alex Marlow-Mann’. The Italianist 30 (2): 269–71.Google Scholar
Marini-Maio, N. 2015. A Very Seductive Body Politic: Silvio Berlusconi in Cinema. Milan: Mimesis International.Google Scholar
Marini-Maio, N. Forthcoming. ‘È solo l'alito di un vecchio. Obscenity, Exchange Regimes, and the Catastrophe of Aging in Loro’. In Paolo Sorrentino's Eclectic Cinematography, edited by Mariani, A.. Bristol: Intellect Books.Google Scholar
Marlow-Mann, A. 2010. ‘Beyond (Post-)Realism: A Response to Millicent Marcus’. The Italianist 30 (2): 258–69.Google Scholar
Minuz, A. 2014. ‘Breve storia del degrado morale (e della sua trasformazione in genere cinematografico italiano)’. Fattore Erre, 28 May https://blog.rubbettinoeditore.it/andrea-minuz/breve-storia-degrado-morale-sua-trasformazione-in-genere-cinematografico-italiano/. Accessed 15 February 2020.Google Scholar
Minuz, A. 2018. ‘Com’è il fosco potere raccontato dal cinema italiano’. Il Foglio, 5 February, https://www.ilfoglio.it/cinema/2018/02/05/news/cinema-sono-tornato-sorrentino-fosco-potere-176959. Accessed 12 September 2019.Google Scholar
Newell, J. 2019. Silvio Berlusconi: A Study in Failure. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
O'Rawe, C. 2014. Stars and Masculinities in Contemporary Italian Cinema. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
O'Rawe, C. 2018. ‘Editorial: Contemporary Italian Film Culture in the Light of #MeToo’. The Italianist 38 (2): 151–2.Google Scholar
Pasquino, G. 2007. ‘The Five Faces of Silvio Berlusconi: The Knight of Anti-Politics’. Modern Italy 12 (1): 39–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stille, A. 2006. The Sack of Rome. New York: The Penguin Press.Google Scholar
Tarchi, M. 2015. ‘Italy: The Promised Land of Populism’. Contemporary Italian Politics 7 (3): 273–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, D. 2018. ‘Them (Loro): Film Review’. The Hollywood Reporter, 30 April https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/review-1106884. Accessed 2 October 2019.Google Scholar
Weissberg, J. 2018. ‘Film Review: Paolo Sorrentino's Loro 1’. Variety, 8 May, https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/loro-1-review-1202802499/. Accessed 18 October 2019.Google Scholar
Zambelli, E., Mainardi, A. and Hajek, A.. 2018. ‘Sexuality and Power in Contemporary Italy: Subjectivities Between Gender Norms, Agency and Social Transformation’. Modern Italy 23 (2): 129–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar