— Fedele Confalonieri, to Berlusconi
Loro (Them, in Italian) is a 2018 movie in two parts by Production Posse Paolo Sorrentino (director) and Toni Servillo (main actor) about a moment (more or less 2 years but it’s unclear) in the tumultuous life of Silvio Berlusconi (never named directly), Italy notorious former Prime Minister and media tycoon. The title refers to all the businessmen, politicians, courtiers and fixers who gravitates the man himself and try to profit in his halo.
Act 1 centers around Sergio Morra (Riccardo Scamarcio) a small entrepreneur from Taranto, who attempts to make it big in Rome trying to grab some large public bid by bribing some politician. Having met Kira, who knows Berlusconi directly he rents a large summer villa in Sardinia across Berlusconi's property and hires numerous escorts trying to get his attention. In the meanwhile we see Berlusconi, no longer at the government nor involved in his companies, bored in his huge villa with his almost-estranged wife, trying to reconcile his failing marriage.In Act 2, Berlusconi is again at the center of the stage, as he tries to bribe some senators to bring down the center-left government in charge and go to new elections. As his wife go to Cambodia on a trip, he agrees to Sergio request to organize a party in his villa, but while the party is apparently a success, it leads to nothing for Sergio’s ambitions and Berlusconi is only interested in a very young girl, Stella, that doesn’t reciprocate his attention.Berlusconi is again prime minister and has to deal with the aftermath of L’Aquila earthquake and an increasingly unstable coalition, as more details of his dissoluted lifestyle come to light and he is faced with increasingly unbearable political scandals. When his wife comes back from Cambodia she asks for a divorce. The movie ends with a long sequence of firefighters in L’Aquila recovering a huge statue of Jesus after a night’s work.
This film provides examples of:
- Adaptation Distillation: Some of the characters, especially in Berlusconi coalition, combine aspects of many more real life politicians. The same can be said about the girls.
- Affably Evil: Berlusconi is always pleasant, has great manners and can be quite funny.
- Animal Motifs: As in The Great Beauty there were flamingos, here we have a rat in the streets of Rome and the lamb in Berlusconi mansion. Take that as you will.
- As Himself: Fabio Concato, the singer at the end of Act 1.
- Author Tract:
- The long shot of firefighters extracting a Christ Statue from the rubble in the end is not dissimilar to the ending shot of The Great Beauty, being a long, mute sequence without comment.
- Like in every movie by Sorrentino, there's at least a pair of dancing parties with lots of people, dancers, music and drugs.
- Benevolent Boss: Berlusconi is loved by his butler. His wife, who is mad at him, acknowledge that he remembers the first names of all his numerous staff.
- Bittersweet Ending: Is the movie a ferocious critique of a power system who seems to revolve exclusively around bribes and escorts or it’s a study on a man who had everything and struggle to come to terms with his age and relative irrelevance and reacts with (pathetic) vitalism? In any case, for all his charade and renewed political power, Berlusconi ends the movie old and alone with the clear sense that his age has passed.
- Brick Joke: Multiple times Berlusconi speaks about a fake volcano in his garden, but nobody is interested in seeing it in action, at the end of Act 2 he activates it while alone. It's a sad counterpoint to his character arc.
- Butt-Monkey: Mariano Apicella, the singer in Berlusconi's villa.
- The Chessmaster: Berlusconi has traits of this in his manipulation of the Italian political scene.
- Con Man: Berlusconi big time. He is flamboyant, entertaining and utterly manipulative. There is a memorable scene at the beginning of Act 2 in which he call a random lady from a phone book and, posing as a real estate agent, sell her an apartment (which does not exist). He does that in order to boost his waning confidence, he doesn't actually sell the flat. His wife accuses him of being no more than a con man when they argue at the end of the movie.
- Consummate Liar: Berlusconi on many many occasions try to "spin" the truth. He outright states at the beginning of the movie to his nephew (after having stepped on a shit in the garden) that "You have learned that a truth is the fruit of the tone and conviction with which we affirm it".
- Corrupt Politician: Omnipresent. Since the first scene with the Taranto city councilman which is provided with an escort on a boat by Sergio Morra. Berlusconi literally buys senators with favors, money and escorts to have them make a vote of no confidence for the center left coalition. Bribes are everywhere.
- Decadent Court: Berlusconi's entourage is definitely portrayed as this.
- Expy: Many, regarding the portrayal of the most controversial characters who have real life counterpart: Kira is Sabina Began, Fabrizio is Lele Mora, Morra is Giampaolo Tarentini, Santino Recchia has aspects of Sandro Bondi.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Berlusconi is sincerely appreciated by his butler, by Ennio Doris (the banker at the beginning of Act 2) and has a touching moment with Fedele Confalonieri, an old-time friend and now CEO of Berlusconi's companies. They share considerations about age and life and common memories of their time together as singers on cruise ships when they were very young (it's Truth in Television).
- Femme Fatale: Kira apparently, by the end of the second movie, she is as broken as the others as Berlusconi consider her nothing more than one of the other girls at his parties.
- Historical Domain Character: There are some liberties but many characters exist in real life: Noemi Letizia and her family, Veronica, Mariano Apicella, Mike Bongiorno, Fedele Confalonieri, Ennio Doris, Marinella.
- May–December Romance: Berlusconi attempts unsuccessfully to romance Stella and it's implied there has been something with many young girls we see in the movie, like Kira. Berlusconi and Veronica may also count (he is in his 70s she is around 50). Berlusconi and Noemi Letizia too.
- Mood Whiplash: As often with Sorrentino, the movie goes from tragic to ridicule to satiric in a matter of minutes.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Zig-zagged, given the events depicted are only 10 years old (more or less) and almost all protagonists are alive and many still politically active the director use pseudonyms. Among the exceptions are Mike Bongiorno (who died in 2009), Mariano Apicella, Berlusconi himself, Ennio Doris, Fedele Confalonieri and Veronica, Berlusconi's wife, who is the very much real Veronica Lario. As a rule of thumb, the more controversial portraits have their names changed.
- Power Corrupts: In spades, this is valid for Morra, Berlusconi, Recchia and maybe Kira.
- Rule of Symbolism: As per Sorrentino, that is to be expected. Just to name a few, the lamb dying in Berlusconi villa, the ending with the Jesus statue, the fake volcano.
- Shout-Out:
- A subtle one, during the party at the villa for some moments a piece of classical music his heard. That's Mozart The Marriage of Figaro, speaking about the nature of love.
- Veronica when arguing with Silvio mentions a well known movie by Italian comedy genius Toto.
- Sleazy Politician: When they are not outright corrupt.
- Turn of the Millennium: The movie precise setting is unclear but we can infer that it's set between 2007 and 2009 (L'Aquila earthquake happened in April 2009).
- Viewers Are Geniuses: A passing knowledge of Italian political environment helps the understanding of the movie.
- Villain Protagonist: It’s hard to find any positive element in Sergio Morra behaviour and personality and he is the undoubted protagonist of Act 1. Regarding Berlusconi, YMMV.
- Woman Scorned: Veronica, learning of his husband many affairs. She's not happy about it.
