It was sort of inevitable that Paolo Sorrentino would come around to a film about his nation’s former Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. A man whose work is most often marked by power and excess — Sorrentino, I mean — he broke onto the international scene with 2008’s Il Divo, a portrait of another controversial Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti, and he’s soon to premiere a Jude Law-led television drama, The Young Pope, the first first two episodes of which just played in Venice to positive notices. Could we expect that this subject wasn’t on his mind?
Variety have word that the writer-director is moving forward with Loro — that’s Italian for Them, and doubly meaningful when l’oro, as your Ennio Morricone folder on iTunes will tell you, translates to “gold” — which will act as “a depiction of Berlusconi’s world, but not a scathing sterile criticism.” How the very public matters of tax fraud, possibly (possibly!) soliciting an under-18 prostitute, bribery, and Mafia associations, among other controversies, could even be handled in that form remains to be seen. Probably not for long, though: Sorrentino could begin production by next summer.
If you’re hoping for more of him in the near future, fret not — you probably have about 10 hours of material coming this year. (The “probably” qualifier being necessary when its October 27 U.K. premiere isn’t yet accompanied by an official date from HBO.) To get ready, enjoy a new trailer for The Young Pope and three clips below:
Synopsis:
Lenny Belardo, aka Pius XIII, is the first American Pope in history. Young and charming, his election seems to be the result of a simple yet effective media strategy on the part of the College of Cardinals. But appearances can be deceptive. Above all, in the place and among the people who have chosen the great mystery of God as the compass guiding their existence. That place is the Vatican and those people are the leaders of the Church. And Pius XIII proves to be the most mysterious and contradictory of them all. Shrewd and naïve, ironical and pedantic, primeval and cutting-edge, doubting and resolute, melancholy and ruthless, Pius XIII tries to cross the endless river of human solitude to find a God he can give to mankind. And to himself.