Loro (film)

Loro
Directed by Paolo Sorrentino
Produced by Francesca Cima
Nicola Giuliano
Written by Paolo Sorrentino
Umberto Contarello
Starring Toni Servillo
Elena Sofia Ricci
Riccardo Scamarcio
Music by Lele Marchitelli
Cinematography Luca Bigazzi
Edited by Cristiano Travaglioli
Production
company
Indigo Film
Pathé
Distributed by Universal Pictures International Italy
Release date
 24 April 2018 (Act 1)
10 May 2018 (Act 2)
13 September 2018 (U.S. cut)
Running time
 204 minutes
100 minutes (Act 1)
104 minutes (Act 2)
145 minutes (U.S. cut)
Country Italy
France
Language Italian

Loro is an Italian film directed by Paolo Sorrentino, starring Toni Servillo. The film talks about the group of businessmen and politicians – the Loro (Them) from the title – who live and act near to media tycoon and politician Silvio Berlusconi in the years between 2006 and 2009.

Plot

Act 1

Sergio Morra is a young businessman from Taranto who manages small trafficking of young escorts who uses to bribe local politicians and obtains licenses without normal procedures. Sergio has a relationship with Tamara, an irresponsible young mother unscrupulous just like him, who helps him in his traffics. The two decide to go to Rome since Sergio wants to get close to power and aims to reach Silvio Berlusconi.

Once in Rome, Sergio meets the mysterious Kira, known as the Queen Bee because of her direct relation with Berlusconi. Meanwhile, Tamara becomes acquainted with former minister Santino Recchia. She teases the politician in order to help Sergio to get a contact with Berlusconi. Recchia wants to replace Berlusconi as leader of the centre-right coalition and asks to deputy Cupa Caiafa if she is going to support him in the challenge of the party secretariat.

Sergio manages to group many young escorts and rents an imposing villa in Sardinia that borders with Berlusconi's summer residence in order to get noticed by him. But Berlusconi is living a very difficult time: alone with his wife Veronica Lario, Berlusconi tries to attract her attentions, but Veronica is now very icy towards him. Diamonds, jokes or the song of the trusted Mariano Apicella are not enough to warm Veronica up again, that claims back her dignity.

Forza Italia is no longer in government and Berlusconi, left without government offices, has nothing to do, since his family business are now controlled by his children. One day, Recchia comes to Berlusconi claiming some help, since Tamara is blackmailing him asking more money for Sergio, otherwise she will reveal that Recchia is betraying his wife. Berlusconi, at first, shows himself willing, but then he furiously reveals that he has knew that Recchia wants to replace him. Then Berlusconi goes to Rome, telling Veronica that he is involved in some political commitments, but he is actually participating to a fashion event with Noemi Letizia, a young and uninhibited girl.

Back to Sardinia, during a talk on his yacht where Veronica suggests him to take back Mike Bongiorno on TV, Berlusconi notices Morra's boat with lots of naked girls, but, despite a little interest, he decides to take a ride with Veronica on his watercraft and, after a sudden storm, they return to the villa. Back there, Veronica asks Berlusconi if he remembers the song that was played on the day of their marriage: after pretending of not remembering the song, Berlusconi demonstrates his affection to Veronica by summoning Fabio Concato who sings for her Una domenica bestiale, the song that was played when they got married.

Act 2

Ennio Doris, an entrepreneur and an old friend of Berlusconi, boasts on his wealth with him, praising at the same time the entrepreneurial genius of Berlusconi, who is more concerned of the fact that he has lost the elections for only 25,000 voters. Ennio suggests Berlusconi to pass six senators to his side in order to bring down the centre-left government. Meanwhile Veronica decides to leave Berlusconi for a while announcing that she wants to travel to Cambodia. Berlusconi manages to persuade several senators to pass on his side giving them money or helping them by giving a place to their girlfriends in films or TV productions. The government falls and Berlusconi wins the new elections.

The loneliness in his Sardinian villa pushes Berlusconi to give in to the requests of Sergio Morra to whom he asks to helping him to organize a party in his villa by bringing as many girls as possible. The army of Morra's escorts are at first happy to be noticed by Berlusconi, but then they clash with a boring and disappointing reality. Kira tries to get some attention by Berlusconi but she's not able to compete with Sergio and Tamara. After the party, Berlusconi has only attention for a young girl, Stella, and tries to seduce her, but she refuses him and leaves with a controversial vein. Kira is not in Berlusconi's graces anymore and Sergio and Tamara understand that having arrived to Berlusconi has led to nothing.

As soon as Berlusconi becomes prime minister again, he has to face the consequences of L'Aquila earthquake, showing up among the refugees and promising new houses for the needing. Nevertheless his behavior in international meetings is embarrassing the highest authorities of Italy and Crepuscolo, one of Berlusconi's most trusted men, asks him to do his job more seriously. One day, Berlusconi is preparing to fly to New York City to talk at the United Nations, but once on the plane he decides to fly to Naples instead to Noemi Letizia on the day of her 18th birthday.

As more details about his dissoluted behavior come out, Berlusconi finds himself at the centre of a political scandal and sees the allies of a lifetime, including Cupa Caiafa, leaving him. Veronica, back from Cambodia, announces to Berlusconi that she wants to divorce and a furious quarrel begins between the two of them. Crushed by political scandals and more isolated, Berlusconi finally invites Mike Bongiorno to his villa to dinner, even if the presenter is in the end dismissed without much regard. Once alone, Berlusconi activates the fake volcano in his garden, an attraction he said he would have shown to all his guests but that he actually never powered on.

Meanwhile in L'Aquila, refugees enter the new house built for them by Berlusconi, while firefighters manage to recover an enormous statue of Jesus Christ by extracting it from a church that was destroyed during the earthquake. The credits are accompanied by a long sequence of shots of the tired firefighters' faces after a long night of work.

Cast

Production

The screenplay was co-written by Paolo Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello. The title Loro is Italian for "them", but also a word play on l'oro, meaning "the gold".[1] The film is produced through Indigo Film and co-produced by France's Pathé. An obstacle was that Sorrentino's usual Italian co-financier Medusa Film, which is controlled by Berlusconi, was not willing to participate in this production.[2] Filming took place in Rome and Tuscany.[3]

Release

The film came out in theatres in two acts: the first act, called Loro 1, came out on 24 April 2018, while the second act, Loro 2, came out on 10 May 2018.

On 7 August 2018, it was announced a new 145 minutes release of Loro scheduled for 13 September 2018. This new international cut has been made in order to allow the movie to run for the 91st Academy Awards[4].

Awards

Nastro d'Argento Awards (2018)

References

  1. ↑ Parfitt, Orlando (2017-10-09). "First look at Toni Servillo as Silvio Berlusconi in Sorrentino's 'Loro'". Screen Daily. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  2. ↑ Vivarelli, Nick (2017-04-10). "Paolo Sorrentino Casts Toni Servillo to Play Silvio Berlusconi". Variety. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  3. ↑ "'Loro', tutto quello che sappiamo del film di Sorrentino su Berlusconi". Rolling Stone Italia (in Italian). 2017-10-09. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  4. ↑ "Loro in versione unica dal 13 settembre al cinema, ecco il poster". BadTaste.it (in Italian). 2018-08-07. Retrieved 2018-08-24.


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