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A superficial fireworks display

Parrot
Regissør: Paolo Sorrentino
( Italia/Frankrike)

ITALIAN POLITICS / With his new film about Silvio Berlusconi, Paolo Sorrentino continues to portray social life and power structures in Italy, without necessarily penetrating the flashy surface.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

Paolo Sorrentino's new movie begins with a statement that the film is not based on real events, and that any resemblance to real people is random. But this claim seems to be as fictitious as the film's content. Without being able to confirm how truthful it is, act Parrot namely about the Italian media mogul and former head of state Silvio Berlusconi.

However, it takes almost an hour of the movie's 150 minutes of playing time before the protagonist even shows up. First we meet the relatively young and very unscrupulous Sergio (Riccardo Scamarcio), whose business seems to be about a form of pimping in political circles. He has a goal of climbing the hierarchy of power, and has realized that the road there goes through the film's aforementioned main character – which at this point is not even mentioned by name. To impress the tan billionaire, Sergio rents a luxurious villa across from Silvio's country house, where he arranges a magnificent feast of light-skinned girls, bubbly wine and generous amounts of cocaine and MDMA.

The film deals with a period in the 2000s where Berlusconi no longer holds any formal political position, but envisions a comeback for the next election. In the film's perhaps most memorable scene, we see him "prepping" for the task by brushing off the dust of ancient arts as a flattering telephone salesman. This scene says a lot about the character's abilities and mentality, and stands out in an otherwise rather long and extravagant orgy in hip-wrenching ladies with and without a bikini.

Vanity and decadence

Both decadence and power structures in Italian society are recurring themes of Sorrentino, who has previously directed the feature films Il Divo og The great beauty as well as the TV series The Young Pope. THE Parrot he again collaborates with actor Toni Servillo, who also starred in two aforementioned films. Servillo is barely recognizable in the role of Berlusconi, which is embodied with a thick layer of make-up and brown cream and an almost impenetrable, constantly glued smile.

Loro does not need to go particularly deep under the protagonist's shock-brown skin.

It's impossible not to admire the film's exquisite craftsmanship, with virtuoso camera guides and consistently gorgeous photos. At the same time, I have trouble understanding what Sorrentino really wants to convey, beyond the obvious: Parrot is a portrayal of Italy's unrestrained upper class, where young women are goods, and power and influence are goals in themselves. Concrete political motives are far from absent. In addition, the film reminds us of the striking similarities between Berlusconi and the current US president, and not just their shared preference for their own complexion. But this is not a film that needs particularly deep under the protagonist's shock-brown skin – with the exception of the aforementioned telephone sales scene and a later minor turning point where the extremely vain and tentatively perpetual Berlusconi gets a nasty reminder of his own age.

Indistinct satire

I have not seen all of Sorrentino's film and series production, and will admit that I was not very excited about it by many cheers The great beauty. To me, it appeared as a rather superficial – albeit cinematic – spectacular walk through Rome's decadent social life, with a self-indulgent and slightly sympathetic protagonist who was constantly reminded of his alleged genius. I had much more sense for the director This Must Be the Place, where Sean Penn played a laid-back, dismissed rock star – but Parrot is far more natural to compare with The great beauty.

Silvio Berlusconi in 2018. Photo: AFP, Tiziana FABI, NTB Scanpix

Now, I in no way wish for a movie that paints a picture of Silvio Berlusconi as a fellow of a kind – although it could have been an interesting, challenging cinematic experience. Nevertheless, it is problematic that Parrot hardly any central characters have to identify with for the spectator. And it is not necessarily easy to swallow an alleged satire about the flashy and shameless hedonistic lifestyle among the jetsetters of politics when the film itself largely embraces this as an unironic and not-so-slightly misogynistic music video.

Admittedly, one may need to have more in-depth knowledge of Italian social life than the undersigned has in order to take full advantage of the film. But I suspect some significant elements have been lost in this international cinema version – then Parrot was launched in the home country, it was like two separate films with a total of almost an hour longer playing time.

However, it is hard to see what Sorrentino here brings to the square about Italian politics and upper class life – and even about Berlusconi himself – which is not already well known to most people. If the point is that there is not so much below the painted surface, it does not prevent that Parrot is experienced as a rather hollow movie.


Parrot its Norwegian cinema premiere April 5th.

Aleksander Huser
Aleksander Huser
Huser is a regular film critic in Ny Tid.

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