La Grazia film review: Compelling and stimulating
An elegant and glorious film that shows you can be solid and non-confrontational to make an impact in politics
As the bin fire that is modern politics continues to rage, the great Italian director Paolo Sorrentino has done something remarkable: he’s made a film that reminds us of how noble it is to serve your country and to do so well, taking audaciously unfashionable subject matter and crafting it into something spectacular.
Following the disappointing Parthenope, Sorrentino reteams for a seventh collaboration with muse Toni Servillo who delivers a performance that bagged him Best Actor at last year’s Venice International Film Festival. He plays fictional Italian president and former judge Mariano De Santis, entering the final six months of his term. Nicknamed ‘Reinforced Concrete’, due to his reputation for stability in the face of governmental chaos, Mariano has to decide whether to be bold in the dying days of his career, as he considers signing a bill that will legalise euthanasia, alongside two pardon petitions. In his deliberations, Mariano is supported by his devoted daughter Dorotea (Anna Ferzetti).
Servillo’s gloriously subtle work poignantly captures a man reflecting on his legacy, his impending irrelevance, and the sorrow he still feels at the loss of his beloved wife seven years previously. It shows how seriously he takes the enormous responsibility bestowed upon him, and the esteem in which this ostensibly uninteresting man is held by the public. La Grazia is more accessible than Sorrentino’s stunning but sometimes narratively impenetrable Il Divo, giving us the elegant flip side of that scandal-filled political biopic.
Sorrentino knows how to enliven potentially dry subject matter, with soaring strings paired with pumping beats, eccentric supporting characters (Milvia Marigliano’s Coco for one), amusing interludes, graceful camerawork and painterly framing. La Grazia is a completely compelling and stimulating piece of cinema, one that puts being sensible on a pedestal and that feels like fantasy more than it should.
La Grazia is in cinemas from Friday 20 March; picture: Andrea Pirrello.