I'm coming into this, having seen no Sorrentino, but with an unwrapped copy of The Consequences of Love at home.
It's an interesting biopic, though I'm a bit reluctant to garland it with the massively effusive praise it's been getting. The film demands a willingness for the audience to consider the entirety of Andreotti's career, not just the short time frame used; there's titles before and after outlining the rise of the Christian Democrats/Andreotti and also his subsequent legal wrangles. I know some critics have said it might not work as well for non-Italian audiences. Well, you get out what you put in.
Superb central performance from Servillo, like a nimble footed Nosferatu. Seems odd how this placid, charisma-free individual inspired such awe and reverence from a larger than life faction. It's intriguing how you learn practically nothing about Andreotti from the performance. Imagine if you were doing a biopic of Berlusconi, whose vanity and ego could be pricked. There's nothing striking about Andreotti; much like the authorities failed to make anything stick to him, Sorrentino can't make anything stick to his character.
It's incredibly stylish, using numerous cinematic techniques and running at breakneck pace, more like an American film in the vein of Scorsese and Tarantino that the conventions of European film making perhaps. Not that the style completely overshadows the substance. I think it was pretty much impossible though to represent Andreotti through film. His career's too long and Sorrentino cuts from incident to incident, not always flowing naturally. I'm not one for simple resolutions anyway but you never really learn anything about him, though the innate corruption and instability of Italian politics and the dark underbelly of Italian society is always prominent.
