This tragic tale of how a power-mad Mussolini sacrificed his first wife and son makes for an awful historical footnote and blustering cinema. The tragic story of Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno in a heartbreaking turn), the young beautician who had a love affair with Benito Mussolini before he got acquainted with official wife Rachele Guidi stirs the viewer into swearing at fascism and the patriarchy with equal ferocity. At the dictator’s behest, a conspiracy would condemn Ms. Dalser to a lonely asylum death in 1937. The fate of her son, Mussolini’s first child, was more harrowing still.
Marco Bellocchio’s film delivers these horrors in grand, operatic style. The feverish pace and an ostentatious use of stylish cinematic devices can recall Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo but Vincere has its own unique swagger.