«M the son of the century», the substantial tome by Antonio Scurati on the rise to power of Benito Mussolini it was material to be treated with extreme care for a TV reduction, but it must be recognized that Sky deployed all its best resources to create a product of the highest cinematic and cultural profile. Merits that must be equally divided between the screenplay by Davide Serino and Stefano Bises and, obviously, by Scurati himself, directed by Joe Wright (author of «The Darkest Hour») and the extraordinary performance of Luca Marinelli in the role of Benito Mussolini.
The book from which the series is based actually already contained all the elements for a complete historical reconstruction of Mussolini’s rise to power, the cinematic transposition expands the fictional dimension through the setting, the reworking of events and superimposes the political vision with that Mussolini’s personal life also in his family context. Rapid and intense brushstrokes that now describe the relationship with the intelligence of Margherita Sarfatti, Now envy for D’Annunzio and the fear that the feat in Fiume could overshadow the rise of the fascism. The story, known to most people, but which nevertheless deserves to be remembered as a warning and a warning, unfolds through sequences that alternate power and contempt for institutions, violence and mystification, with a shade between the stentorian and the ridiculous , without forcing judgment.
The direction coherently accompanies the story by alternating dark tones with sudden beams of light almost with a Caravaggio inspiration and underlines some crucial passages of the narrative also with a skilful use of sound. And he, Benito Mussolini, in the heavy and unstoppable gait of the leader of the people, turns winkingly towards the spectator, almost as if he wants to make him a participant, if not an accomplice, in the inevitability of his path.
Luca Marinelli’s extraordinary interpretation must be underlined, which we imagine involved not only and not so much a work of physical transformation, but above all of tiring identification with the characteristics of the character. THEMarinelli’s skill lies not only in the intensity of his acting participation but in his ability to transfer almost caricatural nuances under the guise of the person’s characteristic traits: rhetoric, display of male authority, pompous display of power. It would be a shame, in consideration of the opposing feelings that agitate the current historical period (let’s remember the controversy that arose over the newspaper which defined Mussolini as “man of the year”), if the exquisitely cinematic value of the Sky series were to take a back seat, making the divisive aspects of fiction prevail.
