Il Divo (2009)

Calm, ambiguous, inscrutable, Giulio Andreotti--known variously as "The Sphinx," "Beelzebub" and "Il Divo" (from a nickname for Julius Caesar)--has been a fixture on the Italian political scene for more than four decades. He first entered government in 1946, and has served as Minister of the Interior, Defense, Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister, and currently, at the age of 90, Life Senator. Over the years he has been accused of ordering political assassinations and of betraying anyone necessary to maintain the reins of power. The film follows Andreotti as his long-dominant Christian Democrat party is toppled in the early 1990's by a trial involving head-on accusations of corruption, murder and Mafia connections. The trial brought a wave of suicides of high-level national figures though Andreotti managed, after a series of trials, verdicts and appeals, to avoid permanent sentence.