Italy, early '90s. Calm, clever and inscrutable, politician Giulio Andreotti has been synonymous with power for decades. He has survived everything: electoral battles, terrorist massacres, loss of friends, slanderous accusations; but now certain repentant mobsters implicate him in the crimes of Cosa Nostra.
Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto, Giulio Bosetti, Flavio Bucci, Carlo Buccirosso, Giorgio Colangeli, Alberto Cracco, Piera Degli Esposti, Lorenzo Gioielli, Paolo Graziosi, Gianfelice Imparato, Massimo Popolizio, Aldo Ralli, Giovanni Vettorazzo, Orazio Alba, Fernando Altieri, Stewart Arnold, Nuot Arquint, Antonello Avallone, Gaetano Balistreri
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, stylized political crime drama that turns Italian power politics into a feverish portrait of secrecy, ritual, and moral rot. It can be opaque without some historical context, but the filmmaking is bold, witty, and unusually memorable.
Best for
Viewers who like political thrillers with a strong authorial style
Fans of crime stories about corruption and institutional power
People interested in modern Italian history
Audiences who enjoy formal, highly stylized cinema
Skip if
You want a straightforward, explanatory biopic
You dislike fragmented storytelling or ironic tone
You need a movie that is emotionally warm or easy to read
You have no patience for political context or allegory
Overview
Il Divo is less a conventional biopic than a choreographed autopsy of power. Paolo Sorrentino turns Giulio Andreotti into a near-mythic figure, surrounding him with ceremony, menace, and deadpan humor until politics starts to look like organized crime in a tailored suit.
Worth noting
The film’s style is the point: sudden bursts of music, gliding camera moves, and exaggerated tableaux make the machinery of government feel both grotesque and hypnotic. It’s a movie about influence, deniability, and the strange theater of public life, where everyone performs innocence while the room fills with smoke.
Bottom line
For viewers with some knowledge of Italian politics, it plays like a darkly funny fever dream; for everyone else, it can still work as a portrait of a man whose power is inseparable from mystery. It’s demanding, but the reward is a political film with real bite and a singular visual identity.
Top Letterboxd reviews
UnlovelySara (4★) · 239 likes
“Montanelli diceva: «De Gasperi e Andreotti andavano insieme a messa e tutti credevano che facessero la stessa cosa. Ma non era così. In chiesa De Gasperi parlava con Dio, Andreotti con il prete».”
“I preti votano, Dio no.”
Edgar Cochran ✝️🍋 (4.5★) · 218 likes
Sorrentino didn’t come to the movie business to play. He came to experiment with the versatility of his cinematic idiosyncrasies. Looking at his filmography, no film is similar to the next one, but looking at Il Divo alone, no scene is similar to the next one.
- It opens with a pumped-up, stylish and energetic Guy-Ritchie-like mafia vibe.- It continues, though very briefly, like early Coppola’s approach to crime organization.- It develops the whole story with tones of… more
veronica (5★) · 191 likes
scarface ma per gli studenti di scienze politiche
theriverjordan (3.5★) · 114 likes
There are two ways to watch “Il Divo:” as a nonfiction, or as a fable. Either way, it’s a reminder; of the real and recent past, and what continues behind gilded doors around the world in the present.
The film, also, balances between two genres - as a gangster picture, or a political thriller. It’s difficult to tell, though, which aspect of its presentation is ultimately the more fantastical.
The title of Paolo Sorrentino’s work translates to either “The Celebrity,”… more