The Stooges "Down on the Street," is featured prominately in the new Paolo Sorrentino movie about Italian Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi; Loro. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the song - poor you because it's a classic - Iggy Pop grunts:
See a pretty thing
Ain't no wall
See a pretty thing
It ain't no wall
Iggy is probably inferring that no woman is unobtainable. Speak for yourself Iggy. You're a rock God. Sorrentino depicts Silvio Berlusconi as rock royalty because just like Iggy, Dylan and Jagger, Berlusconi does not care what people think of him. He is a legend and (some) women worship him. Loro is a film of excess. Sex, drugs, more sex, rock and roll and did I mention sex? It's a tour de force of living on the edge and just like Wolf of Wall Street, Loro is an entertaning ride. Sorrentino shows us La Dolce Vita in all its debauchery.
You barely see Silvio Berlusconi in the 1st half of the movie, played brilliantly by Toni Servillio. We are introduced to sleezy, Sergio (Ricardo Scammarico): A pimp with ambitions of infiltrating Berlusconi's inner circle. Sergio is a lothario, something akin to Vittorio Gassman's Bruno in the movie Il Sorpasso. Sergio spends his nights finding loose women to penetrate Berlusconi's closest confidantes and when he can't bust through, he penetrates the help. Sergio is like Marcello Mastroianni's Guido Anselmi in 8 & 1/2 but Guido didn't snort coke like Sergio does and both characters are insecure narcissists that are constantly trying to affirm their manhoid to women. Sergio moves from women to women when he is not kept in check by his beautiful and "loyal" wife.
Berlusconi is a lot like Sergio but cautious because he is a state figure head. Berlusconi cheats and flirts with women 50 years younger than him. His frustrated wife Veronica Lario tolerates it because she still loves him but how much humiliation can she bare? Berlusconi tests her.
Loro is directed beautifully. Sorrentino makes excellent use of Stefania Cella's production design. Cella creates a fantasy world of merry go rounds and erupting volcanoes on Berlusconi's property. Sorrentino exploits Cella's beauty with gorgeous long shots. Sorrentino seduces Berlusconi and his audience with flattering low angles of his seductresses. They are shot beautifully. They are the central point of his frame and why shouldn't they. The hoardes of stunning models almost steal the movie.
The last shot of the movie is a shot of a Jesus statute preserved in tact after an earthquake destroyed everything in site. It is a fitting metaphor to Berlusconi because despite scandal, Berlusconi has survived it all.
