Toni Servillo in ‘La Grazia’

For many years, the Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino It could not be lost, making films that were widely adopted by critics and audiences, and, in two cases, by the Academy of Arts and Sciences of Film: 2013 The great beauty He won the Oscar of the best international film and 2021 The hand of God He was nominated for it.

Maybe it is not a coincidence that the two films mentioned above, and another five led by Sorrentino, the great Italian scene actor converted on the screen has starred Toni Servillo -o that movie less received from Sorrentino in years, 2024 PARTAGEIt was the first in years he had without servillo.

Sorrentino and Servillo have gathered in The Graziathat opened the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday and then the Telluride Film Festival on Friday, and the good news is that the film, in the opinion of many, including THRThe film critic and I: marks a return to the form for Sorrentino and presents one of the most impressive service turns so far.

Servillo plays a brilliant judge turned into a president of Italy, who is in a good mood with only remaining six months in his term. Her beloved wife died eight years ago, but she, and the extramarital issue she had 40 years ago, still occupies her thoughts every day. His two children, including a daughter who works closely with him, houses resentment towards him. And it seems that he cannot decide anything about anything, even and especially if signing a bill that allows euthanasia and how to govern on two pardons that have been proposed for people who killed their spouses in murky circumstances.

Sorrentino previously explored the Italian policy – Prime Ministers, specifically – in 2008’s’s’s Il divo and 2018 Parrot. But his movie that The Grazia Most remind me is The great beautywhich also focuses on an aged Roman played by Servillo. Servillo characters have totally different professions and temperaments, but both are represented at a time when they are rethinking and questioning their past, and seeing Servillo do that, amid beautiful configurations and a powerful score, is completely absorbent.

The Grazia It will be released by Mubi at the end of this year. It seems more likely that the film is the submission of Italy for the best international competition in Oscar, and that Servillo could obtain a true traction in Oscar’s career for the best actor. Servillo has never been nominated, and it seems to me that this must be corrected sooner or later.