Overview: One of the key factors in Italian unification was the overthrow in 1860 of Francesco, the King of Naples and the two Sicilies, who went into elegant but impoverished exile in Rome with his Queen, Maria Sofia. This seriocomic drama follows the deposed royals as they adapt to their new lives. The former king has recognized the political finality of his deposition, but his queen has taken to traveling in men's clothing all over Italy trying to foment an uprising to restore them to the throne. She is also frantic to have a baby, an heir, but the king has become celibate as a kind of homage to his beloved mother; he spends all his time lobbying the Vatican to get her declared a saint.
Though at times I did quite enjoy this, I will admit to not always knowing what was going on! It blurs the lines between biopic, history and pantomime to the point where it is often quite difficult to...
Though at times I did quite enjoy this, I will admit to not always knowing what was going on! It blurs the lines between biopic, history and pantomime to the point where it is often quite difficult to discover just who is sane and who is not. There certainly was a King Francesco II of Naples and the Two Sicilies (Giancarlo Giannini) who was married to Maria Sofia (Ornella Muti) and they were deposed by Garibaldi before Vittorio Emanuele incorporated their realm into the newly founded kingdom of Italy, but as to the rest of this drama - well it's a speculative romp through the caricature of characters, costumes and silliness that accompanied the two ex-monarchs as they first fled to Rome as a guest of the Pope then became a bit more broke and migratory. The King was fairly stoic about his chances of restoration, his wife much less so. She was adamant that an heir would solve their problems but he wasn't interested. He seemed much more intent on getting beatification for his late lamented mother rather than looking after the future of his own family. It was quite a turbulent time in Europe and as powers ebbed and flowed, so did their fortunes and that's what this jovial exercise depicts. Giannini looks like he is having a good time indulging in an array of antics that possibly illustrated why he was deposed in the first place; Muti does well enough without a great deal to work with and Carlo Croccolo steals most of his scenes as their savvy butler "Rafele". The narrative takes quite a swipe at the ideology of patriotism, of loyalties and, frankly, of dynastic incompetence fuelled by stupidity at all levels of what could loosely be called "government". Sadly, it's a jumbled mess most of the time and the queen's penchant for dressing up as a man to stir feelings of rebellion didn't always work. That said, though, it's quirky and interesting to see how auteur Luigi Magni took a more domestic (less Hollywood) look at aspects of the sometimes quite brutal foundations of his modern nation whilst poking a bit of fun at the zealous excesses that involved.
