A Very Seductive Body Politic : Silvio Berlusconi in Cinema

This book maps the multilayered narratives that the cinema has created on and around Silvio Berlusconi as a powerful means to explore the age of Berlusconismo. Navigating through the surplus of meanings assigned to the Italian political leader by the texts and practices circulating in Italian society, this investigation privileges a horizon of analysis that crosses both chronological and generic boundaries. Going back to the comedy Italian style sub-genre, which foreshadows the significations converged in Berlusconi before the real figure actually entered the public stage, the discussion spans from the proto-Berlusconi everyman of "La piu bella serata della mia vita" (1972), directed by Ettore Scola, to the decadent caricature of "La caduta dell'impero" (in pre-production), scripted and directed by Roberta Torre. The author argues that the Berlusconi of this study is not only the historical persona, but a pervasive semiotic category in which the history of the country is inscribed.