Mussolini and I

Rating:
Summary: Historical drama
Review: For anyone who can sit through the nearly 4 hours of this movie, there is the reward of learning a lot about a man who is a shadowy historical figure to most of us. Mussolini is shown as a complex figure, torn between the demands of his job and thos of his family. Key figures in this drama are Edda, Mussolini's daughter and Count Ciani, her husband, played compellingly by Susan Sarandon and Anthony Hopkins. At the beginning, Ciani is Mussolini's right-hand man, but eventually his anti-Nazi views put him at odds with his father-in-law. Both Edda and her mother are loyal to their husbands, despite the men's attentions to other women. The path of WWII is traced, and emphasis is put on the uneasy alliance between Mussolini and Hitler. This is an interesting and compelling story.