Italian/French drama—Although the film introduces Mussolini in the beginning (who marries Ida and has a boy child with her), the film is more about Ida and how Mussolini gradually disowns her, even though she gives up everything for him—her apartment, her furniture, her jewelry, everything—to invest the money in his newspaper that is a socialist newspaper. As Mussolini gains more power, he and his government become more of a dictator Fascist government, and he loses touch with the people.
He sees to it that Ida and the son are both put into mental institutions, where the son dies at 26, crazed, because he loved his father and had to live a life of exile with crazy people. Ida went through much turmoil and suffering in the institution and tried very hard to keep her sanity, going in and out of very deep bouts of depression. She eventually died in the mental institution. Mussolini, in the meantime, married again and had four other sons and never acknowledged that he had once married Ida and had another son. All papers were destroyed, and Ida seemed like a mad woman saying she was Mussolini's wife; Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Filippo Timi, Director Marco Bellocchio. Italian and German with English subtitles.
~Gabriel of Urantia*MPAA = Motion Picture Association of America
*4DFR = An alternative, 4th-Dimensional, rating is supplied by the author of this review
