Country: Italy
Year: 2011
Duration: 56'
On April 29, 1945, partisans and citizens of Milan gathered in Piazzale Loreto to celebrate the death of the Duce. Mussolini’s body, which was hanging by its feet, became a symbol of the victorious Resistance. But that mangled body, a true icon of the entire regime, also embodies the horror of civil war and is a story that is hard to hold up as a cornerstone of the foundation of the new Italy. The body was stolen by the neo-fascists in 1946 and was hidden by the Christian Democrats for eleven years, until – only in 1957 – it was buried at Predappio. “What is striking is that, even after so many years, certain psychological mechanisms are so up-to-date and today seem to influence the consensus of Italians with regard to the figure of their leader. Recurring elements such as personal charisma, ostentatious sexual exuberance and the exhibition of a body that seems immune to the passage of time have forged – today like yesterday – a particular physical bond between Italians and their leader. This seems to be a characteristic of our country and it struck us as an interesting topic for reflection.”
Biography
film director
Fabrizio Laurenti
Fabrizio Laurenti (Rome, Italy, 1956) graduated from the Art Institute of Pomezia, after which he moved to New York, where he debuted with the short film The Immigrant, which was presented at the 1986 Festival Cinema Giovani in Torino and won the Golden Seagull at the Bellaria Film Festival in 1987. He then directed the horror movies La casa 4 and Creepers, and then returned to Italy to direct the Rai Due miniseries Tre passi nel delitto. In 1994 he was back in the United States, where he directed the thriller La stanza accanto, scripted by Pupi Avati, which was followed by the TV series, always written by Avati, Voci notturne and the TV film Olimpo Lupo - Cronista di nera. In 2004 he made the documentary Il segreto di Mussolini, which was the inspiration for Marco Bellocchio’s film Victory (2009).
FILMOGRAFIA
filmografia essenziale/essential filmography
The Immigrant (cm, 1986), La casa 4 (1989), Creepers (1993), Tre passi nel delitto (tv, 1993), La stanza accanto (1994), Voci notturne (tv, 1995), Olimpo Lupo - Cronista di nera (tv, 1995), Il segreto di Mussolini (coregia/codirector Gianfranco Norelli, tv, doc., 2005), Il corpo del duce (mm, doc., 2011).
Cast
& Credits
regia, sceneggiatura/director, screenplay
Fabrizio Laurenti
soggetto/story
dall’omonimo libro di/from the book of the same tile by Sergio Luzzatto
montaggio/film editing
Angelo Musciagna
musica/music
Ugo Laurenti
suono/sound
Andrea Malavasi
interpreti/cast
Joele Dix (voce narrante/Narrator), Aurora Cancian, Riccardo Mei, Luis Molteni, Luca Violini (voci/Voices)
produzione, distribuzione, vendita all’estero/production, distributor, world sales
Cinecittà Luce
