This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2024) |
Mussolini and I | |
---|---|
![]() DVD cover of Mussolini and I | |
Written by | Alberto Negrin Nicola Badalucco |
Directed by | Alberto Negrin |
Starring | Bob Hoskins Anthony Hopkins Susan Sarandon |
Theme music composer | Egisto Macchi |
Country of origin | Italy France West Germany Switzerland Spain United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producers | Mario Gallo Enzo Guilioli |
Editors | Roberto Perpignani Egisto Macchi |
Running time | 130 mins. (original) 240 mins. (extended) |
Production companies | HBO Premiere Films Rai Radiotelevisione Italiana |
Original release | |
Network | Rai Uno HBO |
Release | 15 April 1985 |
Mussolini and I (alternately titled Mussolini: The Decline and Fall of Il Duce) is a 1985 made-for-television docudrama film directed by Alberto Negrin. [1] It chronicles the strained relationship between Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and his son-in-law and foreign minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, based on Ciano's diaries. Made in English as an Italian-French-German-Swiss-Spanish-US co-production, with Bob Hoskins, Anthony Hopkins and Susan Sarandon in the leading roles, it first aired on Rai Uno on 15 April 1985 in a 130-minute version. On 8 September 1985, it premiered in the USA on HBO in an extended four-hour version.
All filming was done in Italy, including northern Italy's Gargnano, Merano, Bolzano, Verona, and in central Italy, Rome and L'Aquila. Filming was also done at the well known Villa Torlonia and Palazzo Venezia. It was released on a 2 disc DVD in August 2003. It is divided into four segments for a total of 240 minutes and was released by Koch Entertainment.
The film starts just before World War II and shows the political and personal side of Benito Mussolini's fall from power and his death and the end of the war. It delves into his relationship with his son in-law, daughter, wife, mistress, and Hitler.
Locations used included Mussolini's former residences Villa Torlonia and Villa Feltrinelli. [1] The film reunited Hoskins and Hopkins after they had played Othello and Iago for the BBC Television Shakespeare series a few years earlier. Its Italian shoot overlapped with the filming (in Yugoslavia) of Mussolini: The Untold Story starring George C. Scott: when asked about the rival series by a journalist, Scott called Hopkins "the best English-speaking actor today". Hopkins's fee was reported in the press as $450,000. [2]
John J. O'Connor, reviewing for The New York Times , wrote that the script "keeps reducing historical issues to the dimensions of a kitchen drama. These particular kitchens just happen to be in magnificent Italian palazzos". He described Hoskins as "all done up in elaborate makeup with no place to go except to look terribly unhappy but determined to stick it out to the end", but praised the other leading performances and the production values. [1]
Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari was an Italian diplomat and politician who served as Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law, Benito Mussolini, from 1936 until 1943. During this period, he was widely seen as Mussolini's most probable successor as head of government.
Duce is an Italian title, derived from the Latin word dux 'leader', and a cognate of duke. National Fascist Party leader Benito Mussolini was identified by Fascists as Il Duce of the movement since the birth of the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento in 1919. In 1925 it became a reference to the dictatorial position of Sua Eccellenza Benito Mussolini, Capo del Governo, Duce del Fascismo e Fondatore dell'Impero. Mussolini held this title together with that of President of the Council of Ministers: this was the constitutional position which entitled him to rule Italy on behalf of the King of Italy. Founder of the Empire was added for the exclusive use by Mussolini in recognition of his founding of an official legal entity of the Italian Empire on behalf of the King in 1936 following Italy's victory in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. The position was held by Mussolini until 1943, when he was removed from office by the King and the position of "Duce" was dismantled, while Marshal Pietro Badoglio, 1st Duke of Addis Abeba was appointed Presidente del Consiglio.
Margherita Sarfatti was an Italian journalist, art critic, patron, collector, socialite, and prominent propaganda adviser of the National Fascist Party. She was Benito Mussolini's biographer as well as one of his mistresses.
Dino Grandi, 1st Conte di Mordano was an Italian Fascist politician, minister of justice, minister of foreign affairs and president of parliament.
Edda Ciano, Countess of Cortellazzo and Buccari was the daughter of Benito Mussolini, Italy's fascist dictator from 1922 to 1943. Her husband, the fascist propagandist and Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, was executed in January 1944 for his role in Mussolini's ouster. She strongly denied her involvement in the National Fascist Party regime after her father's execution by the Italian partisans in April 1945.
The Mussolini family is a well-known family in Italy. The most prominent member was Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943. Other members of the family include:
Rachele Guidi, also known as Donna Rachele and incorrectly as Rachele Mussolini in the English-speaking world, was the second wife of Italian dictator and fascist leader Benito Mussolini.
Odoardo Dino Alfieri was an Italian fascist politician and diplomat. He served as Benito Mussolini's press and propaganda minister and ambassador to Berlin.
Vittorio Mussolini was an Italian film critic and producer. He was also the second child of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. However, he was the first officially acknowledged son of Mussolini, with his second wife Rachele; his older half-brother, Benito Albino Dalser, was never officially acknowledged by Mussolini's fascist regime.
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian dictator who founded and led the National Fascist Party (PNF). He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 1943, as well as Duce of Italian fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919 until his summary execution in 1945 by Italian partisans. As dictator of Italy and principal founder of fascism, Mussolini inspired and supported the international spread of fascist movements during the inter-war period.
Bruno Mussolini was the son of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and Mussolini's second wife Rachele, the nephew of Arnaldo Mussolini, and also the grandson of Alessandro Mussolini and Rosa Mussolini. He was an experienced pilot who died in a flying accident.
Alessandro Mussolini was the father of Italian Fascist founder and leader Benito Mussolini, the father of Arnaldo and Edvige Mussolini, the father-in-law of Rachele Mussolini, and the paternal grandfather of Edda Mussolini, Romano Mussolini, Vittorio Mussolini and Bruno Mussolini. He was an Italian revolutionary socialist activist with nationalist sympathies. Mussolini was a blacksmith by profession. He was married to Rosa Maltoni, a schoolteacher, who became the mother of Benito Mussolini, and exercised considerable influence over his son Benito's early political beliefs, even naming his son Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini after three leaders he admired: Benito Juárez, Amilcare Cipriani and Andrea Costa.
Giuseppe Bastianini was an Italian politician and diplomat. Initially associated with the hard-line elements of the fascist movements he later became a member of the dissident tendency.
Mussolini: The Untold Story is a television biographical miniseries drama that aired on November 24–26, 1985. The series followed the rise, rule, and downfall of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
The Italian occupation of Majorca lasted throughout the Spanish Civil War. Italy intervened in the war with the intention of annexing the Balearic Islands and Ceuta and creating a client state in Spain. The Italians sought to control the Balearic Islands because of their strategic position, from which they could disrupt lines of communication between France and its North African colonies, and between British Gibraltar and Malta. Italian flags were flown over the island. Italian forces dominated Majorca, with Italians openly manning the airfields at Alcúdia and Palma, as well as Italian warships being based in the harbour of Palma.
The fall of the Fascist regime in Italy, also known in Italy as 25 Luglio, came as a result of parallel plots led respectively by Count Dino Grandi and King Victor Emmanuel III during the spring and summer of 1943, culminating with a successful vote of no confidence against the Prime Minister Benito Mussolini at the meeting of the Grand Council of Fascism on 24–25 July 1943. As a result, a new government was established, putting an end to the 21 years of Fascist rule in the Kingdom of Italy, and Mussolini was placed under arrest.
Felice Chilanti was an Italian anti-fascist and journalist.
This is a list of Italian television related events from 1985.
Marcello Cesare Augusto Petacci was an Italian surgeon and businessman, the brother of actress Maria Petacci and of dictator Benito Mussolini's lover Clara Petacci.
Giuseppe Mastromattei was an Italian Fascist politician and civil servant, who served as prefect of Bolzano from 1933 to 1940. He was the longest serving prefect of the province of Bolzano and oversaw the forced Italianization of South Tyrol under the Fascist regime, as well as the South Tyrol Option Agreement of 1939.