This is easily not the best movie from Sorrentino, but it's the most important one. What is Italy in 2006 (but also nowadays) if not a mixture of decadence and corruption? One can say that decadence and corruption are also the keys in The Great Beauty and Il Divo, but in Loro they elevate (or fall..) to a whole new level: they come between us, between the common people (but always without showing them). The movie gives in 4 hours the perception that everything you see is something that affects your life. The description of the power is limited to the court of the pimps that aspire to became relevant (in the first part) and to the harem of Berlusconi (in the second part). The harem is made of faithful servants, women willing to do anything and characters with superior and obscure power, that even Berlusconi himself does not seem to fully understand. The most intriguing one is God: a deus ex machina of which Berlusconi often asks, almost as if he wants to know his intentions and behave in a manner that will please him (perhaps a mafia boss, like Vittorio Mangano, creator of Berlusconi's economical fortune in the 90s). In the background there is the separation between private life, in which one can do what he wants, and public life, in which there is the higher purpose of the community. Sorrentino confronts us with the essential question: does this separation really exist? Can a person be two people at the same time? The answer is entrusted to Berlusconi's wife: "you are a sick man" she tells him. This is the tragic account of the corruption of the Italian political class, a world that many detest, but too many desire. There is only one exception to the portrait of ordinary people: the only time they are shown is in the ending. They are the tired faces of the displaced people after the 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila. They are the people who represent Italy painted by Sorrentino: they can't ask themselves questions anymore, but they need to get answers. This is the power: the absence of questions. 6.5/10

As much as I like Sorrentino's style, I just coyldn't get this one. Yeah superficially I understood it but the nuances... I don't have enough knowledge of this time in Italy and most of it went over my head. I will still watch part 2 but yeah I didn't connect. Maybe when I get round to reading more about Sorrentino I will.