''Videocracy'' is a 2009 documentary film directed by Swedish-Italian

Erik Gandini Erik Walter Gandini (born 14 August 1967) is an Italian-Swedish film director, writer, and producer anprofessorof documentary film at Stockholm University of the Arts. His film '' The Swedish Theory of Love'' premiered at the 2015 Stockholm Inter ...

about

Italian television Television in Italy was introduced in 1939, when the first experimental broadcasts began. However, this lasted for a very short time: when fascist Italy entered World War II in 1940 all transmissions were interrupted, and were resumed in earnest ...

and its impact on

Italian culture Italy is considered one of the birthplaces of Western civilization and a cultural superpower. Italian culture is the culture of the Italians, a Romance ethnic group, and is incredibly diverse spanning the entirety of the Italian peninsula ...

and

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

, and about

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...

's powerful position on all of these. Gandini coined the phrase "The Evilness of Banality" to describe the cultural phenomenon of

Berlusconism Berlusconism ( it, berlusconismo) is a term used in the Western media and by some Italian analysts to describe the political positions of former Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. In general, Berlusconism could be reassumed ...

, thus making a word play on

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. Arendt was born ...

's "

Banality of Evil ''Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil'' is a 1963 book by political thinker Hannah Arendt. Arendt, a Jew who fled Germany during Adolf Hitler's rise to power, reported on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the major organizer ...

". Soon after its theatrical premiere in Sweden, the film was shown at the

66th Venice International Film Festival The 66th annual Venice International Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, was held from 2 to 12 September 2009, with Maria Grazia Cucinotta serving as the festival's hostess. The opening film of the festival was '' Baarìa'' by Giuseppe Torn ...

where it gained massive attention. The trailer for the film has been banned by most Italian television broadcasters. ''Videocracy'' uses the

theme song Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

for Silvio Berlusconi's presidential campaign, and now party theme, ''Meno male che Silvio c'è!'' (loosely translated: Thank God for Silvio!). When first hearing it the film's director Erik Gandini thought it was satire. ''Videocracy'' has won awards at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

Sheffield Doc/Fest Sheffield DocFest (formerly styled Sheffield Doc/Fest), short for Sheffield International Documentary Festival (SIDF), is an international documentary festival and Marketplace held annually in Sheffield, England. The Festival includes film sc ...

, the Golden Graal awards, and the Tempo Documentary Award of 2010. ''Videocracy'' was widely distributed internationally, seeing theatrical release in the United States, UK, the Netherlands, France, Poland, and Sweden among other countries. In Italy, where it opened in 90 theaters across the country on the weekend of 4 September 2009, ''Videocracy'' came in 4th in box office rankings.

Plot

The Italian veline phenomenon is explained. We meet young mechanic Ricky who tries to become a TV star, but complains that it is more difficult for a man. TV agent Lele Mora admiringly says that Berlusconi resembles

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

Paparazzo Paparazzi (, ; ; singular: masculine paparazzo or feminine paparazza) are independent photographers who take pictures of high-profile people; such as actors, musicians, athletes, politicians, and other celebrities, typically while subjects ...

Fabrizio Corona takes embarrassing photographs of celebrities, and asks them for money to not publicize them. He explains that he is a new version of

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depic ...

: he steals from the rich, but keeps the money to himself. When he was convicted for extortion, it made him a greater celebrity, and he is now cashing in on this. He is shown full-frontally naked taking a shower.

References

External links

* * *
''Videocracy''
a review by the

Wu Ming Wu Ming, Chinese for "anonymous", is a pseudonym for a group of Italian authors formed in 2000 from a subset of the Luther Blissett community in Bologna. Four of the group earlier wrote the novel '' Q'' (first edition 1999). Unlike the open nam ...

collective. * http://filmmakermagazine.com/directorinterviews/2010/02/erik-gandini-videocracy.html * http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jun/23/videocracy-review * http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/movies/12videocracy.html?em * http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/film/82822/videocracy-film-review 2009 films Danish documentary films Finnish documentary films British documentary films 2000s Italian-language films Swedish documentary films 2009 documentary films Works about Silvio Berlusconi Documentary films about the media Films directed by Erik Gandini 2000s British films 2000s Swedish films {{2000s-documentary-film-stub