Viral (per)versions of power in Paolo Sorrentino's diptych Loro

Bibliographic Data

ID12535207
AuthorsAnnachiara Mariani (0000-0001-8710-191X, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume25
Issue3
Pages299-315
Publication date2020-06-18
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueModern Italy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1353-2944 • E-ISSN: 1469-9877
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/mit.2020.30
OpenAlexW3036597128
LanguageEN
References cited17

This article examines Paolo Sorrentino's portrayal of moral degradation and pursuit of power in his twin biopics about Silvio Berlusconi: Loro 1 and Loro 2 (2018). It does so by performing a psychological reading of Sorrentino's representation of Berlusconi, as someone suffering from a personality disorder characterised by excessive power striving. It argues that this obsession with power also affects most of the films’ characters, who become obsessed with entering Berlusconi's inner circle – the pinnacle of wealth and power in a neoliberal society. In particular, it argues that their power striving circulates ‘virally’ in the film's narrative; the characters are willing to do anything to befriend their idol and attain absolute power. The ensuing analysis shows that Sorrentino's portrayal of Berlusconi – as the embodiment of a highly dysfunctional and obsessive, viral quest for power – comes to represent the deep pervasiveness of corruption, hedonism and commodification that marked the Second Republic

Aesthetics · Art · Dictator · Dysfunctional family · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Psychoanalysis · Reading (process · Sociology · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Psychology

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