The figure of Silvio Berlusconi, who died on June 12 at the age of 86, has been closely linked and during practically his entire public career to the word “controversial”; either on the political scene, where he will be remembered as the founder of the Forza Italia party and as President of the Council of Ministers of Italy on three occasions, or on staff, marked, among other things, by his famous “bunga bunga” parties.
But today we are going to focus on the audiovisual facet of Cavaliere, who, in addition to standing out on the television scene as founder of TeleMilano, the seed of the Mediaset cathodic empire, maintained a brief but surprisingly prolific relationship with the seventh art. A career as a producer in an international key that had an Oscar in between.
The Oscar of the Cavaliere
Berlusconi’s film vision was concentrated between 1991 and 1992, when he produced 4 feature films: two Italian and two American. Under the banner of the stars and stripes, he participated in Ted Kotcheff’s ‘How to survive the family’ and in ‘She never refuses’, starring Tom Selleck and Jack Nicholson respectively; However, his greatest achievement had a European stamp.
In 1991, the politician and businessman worked as a producer on the animated film ‘Want to fly’ by Guido Manuli and Maurizio Nichetti and, now, on ‘Mediterranean’; a war comedy set in World War II directed by Gabriele Salvatores and Oscar winner for best foreign language film. An award that came three years after Giuseppe Tornatore did the same with his ‘Cinema Paradiso’.
‘Mediterranean’, which competed with ‘Children of nature’ by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, ‘oxen’ by Sven Nykvist, ‘Primary school’ by Jan Sverák and the celebrated ‘The Red Lantern’ by maestro Zhang Yimou, tells the story of a unit of misfit members of the Italian army who are isolated on a Greek island with no military interest, gradually integrating with their neighbors until they practically forget their status as soldiers.
In addition to the prized golden statuette, ‘Mediterranean’, starring Claudio Bigagli, Diego Abatantuono, Giuseppe Cerderna and Ugo Conti —among others— also won the the David di Donatello Awards for Best Film, Best Editing and Best Sound, becoming nominated in twelve categories. In addition, it received a mention from the American National Board of Review as one of the best foreign films of 1991.
According to data from BoxOfficeMojo, the feature film directed by Salvatores came to reap 4.5 million dollars after its premiere in Italy on March 20, 1992. Luckily for anyone who wants to see what pleasures this multi-award-winning anti-war piece offers, they can find it in the Filmin and Amazon Prime Video catalogues.
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