Il Divo News

Writer-director Paolo Sorrentino's stylish biopic on former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti is a brilliantly executed testament to the visual power of cinema: unless you've closely followed Italy's political history over the last 20 years you probably won't understand what's going on - but it's all so astonishingly gorgeous, you won't care.

Il Divo is a fantastic biopic on the most exciting times of Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.

Il Divo is a fantastic biopic on the most exciting times of Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.

It may just be that anger at injustice has a way of dulling the senses, but rarely are works of art with an overt political themes actually all that entertaining or engaging.

Election Day Director Katy Chevigny presents an inconclusive but interesting documentary that employs 11 stories to chronicle the 2004 presidential election from the viewpoints of voters, campaign workers, activists and poll workers.

Why am I telling you absolutely, positively not to miss a movie about the incomprehensible realm of Italian politics, one that had a blink-and-you-missed-it theatrical release earlier this year? Because writer-director Paolo Sorrentino's "Il Divo" knocked my socks off, that's why.

New DVDs being released Tuesday, Oct. 27, include "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs' and 'Orphan.' Family, friends and one scary "Orphan" gather on DVD today.

Veteran Italian actor Toni Servillo's craggy wise-hood face -- as impassive and immobile as a dentist staring into your mouth or a panther regarding its prey -- is at the center of a jaw-dropping whirlpool of bloody events and political crime, portrayed or exposed in Il Divo , subtitled The Extraordinary Life of Giulio Andreotti .

WOODY ALLEN'S "Whatever Works" drew mostly middling reviews during its big-screen run, complaints keying to the same-old older-man, much-younger-woman story line and star Larry David's annoying spews of negativity.

A good political thriller has to both entertain and educate. Or to put this another way, thrills are needed along with the politics.

Writer-director Allen finds a fitting stand-in to espouse his trademark sour intellectual world-view. Cranky Larry David plays a loner retiree and self-proclaimed genius who improbably takes in a pretty teen runaway .

It's been compared to "The Godfather" and "Nixon," but the Italian political opus "Il Divo" reminds me of nothing so much as Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane." The subject is Giulio Andreotti, a six-time Italian prime minister and one of the most controversial and corrupt politicians in the Western world.

Regardless of whether you've heard of Giulio Andreotti, the dark prince of Italian politics from the '70s to the '90s, you'll recognize the type: Think Richard Nixon with a hunchback and a better tailor.

Tonight the 45th Chicago International Film Festival brings back some of this year's award winners for its annual "Best of the Fest" wrap-up. Also on the schedule are films that proved especially popular in audience polls, if not on jury ballots.

The Picture House has announced four new Italian films for the ninth edition of the Westchester Italian Film Festival.

Toni Servillo plays corrupt but powerful Italian politician Giulio Andreotti in a oeIl Divo.a The film is in Italian with English subtitles.

A magnificently theatrical portrait of the self-appointed godfather of Italian politics, Giulio Andreotti, is a standout attraction at the 2009 Italian Film Festival which opens in Auckland next week.

Director Paolo Sorrentino's film won the Jury Prize at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and won seven David di Donatello Awards .

First-time Italo helmer Giuseppe Capotondi, whose Venice competition entry "The Double Hour" unspooled to warm reaction Thursday, reps a rarity in Italian cinema for a couple reasons.

My One and Only Your enjoyment of My One and Only will depend on how much the words "inspired by incidents in the life of actor and Hollywood icon George Hamilton " spark swoony memories.