Loro

Very, very Sorrentino

I am the Jesus Christ of politics. I am a patient victim, I sacrifice myself for everyone.

• Silvio Berlusconi; Campaign dinner (February 11, 2006)

I am without doubt the person who's been the most persecuted in the entire history of the world and the history of man.

• Silvio Berlusconi; Press conference (October 8, 2009)

When asked if they would like to have sex with me, 30% of women said, 'Yes', while the other 70% replied, 'What, again'?

• Silvio Berlusconi; Press conference (March 30, 2011)

They can tap my telephone calls. I d__on't give a fuck. I'm getting out to mind my own fucking business, from somewhere else, and so I'm leaving this shitty country, of which I'm sickened.

• Silvio Berlusconi; Tapped phone conversation with Valter Lavitola (July 13, 2011)

Silvio Berlusconi first came to power for the same reasons Trump and other populists have been coming to power around the world: Voters were disgusted by a governing elite that seemed corrupt and out of touch. They felt swamped by waves of immigrants, frustrated by economic stagnation and disgusted by the cultural values of the cosmopolitan urbanites.

In office, Berlusconi did nothing to address Italy's core problems, but he did degrade public discourse with his speech, weaken the structures of government with his corruption and offend basic decency with his bunga bunga sex parties and his general priapic lewdness.

In short, Berlusconi, like Trump, did nothing to address the sources of public anger, but he did erase any restraints on the way it could be expressed.

• David Brooks; "The Chaos After Trump" (New York Times) (March 5, 2018)

Loro [Them], the latest film from Italian auteur Paolo Sorrentino, is what can only be described as very, very Sorrentino, insofar as it's a pure distillation of his overriding thematic concerns and an inclusive anthology-like compendium of his stylistic tendencies. By way of...