Fortunate in that between the 60s-era ‘changeover’ cinematic operation we have on the flagship MIFF site, the Forum; I was able to to catch Erik Gandini‘s documentary in near entirety.
This curiously Swedish film is presented by Lars Von Trier’s Zentropa -the production company that vyed for arthouse supremacy in the early 90s and has since made a resurgence with such titles as The Idiots, the Dogville trilogy and Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself.
Having an awareness of the manic that is politica Italiano, I found myself engaged in this perspective of Silvio Berlusconi‘s grasp of Italian media outlets. The film opens with a summary of erotic cinema; Ron Jeremy at the fore amidst shots of scantily-clad women in both popular ‘underground’ video and shopping malls on the continent, alike.
The film is at times tedious in its depiction of billionaire girls and television production impresarios: namely in its pursuit of t.v. ‘turncoat’ Fabrizio Corona but ultimately frames Berlusconi‘s hard hand on a post-modern propaganda machine that is both daunting and amazing; a description I use without any flattery.

This is a film perhaps best viewed on video but au contraire worth a visit to your supposedly ‘local’ or ‘independent’ cinema.

-Rock The Boat