at the cinema, 3 films on the exercise of power

2. Grazia

Six months before the end of his mandate, Mariano De Santis, President of the Italian Republic, has several thorny issues on his desk.

On the one hand, the bill legalizing euthanasia, on which Parliament agreed. On the other, two requests for pardon for a man and a woman sentenced to long prison terms for murder.

Will he sign? A meticulous jurist, he weighs the pros and cons indefinitely. He multiplies conversations with his daughter who is also his closest advisor, with his bodyguard, with his ministers, with an old eccentric friend, and even with the Pope. He sometimes isolates himself, overcome by the memory of his wife, who died eight years earlier. She cheated on him once, a long time ago. He doesn’t know with whom, and it obsesses him. The files are still on his desk and he can’t make up his mind. We may find certain scenes too long and certain aesthetic effects too strong.

But the actors – in particular Toni Servillo, often filmed silent, in close-up – are remarkable.

Above all, the film makes us think about the exercise of power, about what constitutes the weight of a life, and about issues that combine ethics, morality, politics and the spiritual. What if grace had to do with doubt? Victor Macé de Lépinay

Our opinion: PP