Vincere

Director: Marco Bellochio 128 minutes. Rated: Unrated

Film Synopsis

In Italian with English subtitles

In Vincere, the closely guarded story of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's secret lover and son is revealed in fittingly operatic proportions. Thunderstruck by the young Mussolini's charisma, Ida Dalser gives up everything to help champion his revolutionary ideas. When he disappears during World War I and later resurfaces with a new wife, the scorned Dalser and her son are locked away in separate asylums for more than a decade. But Ida will not disappear without a fight.

Mezzogiorno (Love in the Time of Cholera) plays Dalser with the kind of fervent intensity once seen in silent films. 
Lisa Schwartzbaum - Entertainment Weekly

Setting aside, just for a moment, his general loathsomeness, there is a case to be made for a less apparent aspect of Benito Mussolini: He was once really hot. 
Boston Globe - Wesley Morris

An amazing, galvanic experience. It's about the hushed-up story of Benito Mussolini's first wife and child, but no one will ever mistake this movie for a standard biopic. It's too raw, too primal.
Christian Science Monitor - Peter Rainer