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Mixed or average reviews - based on 8 Critics What's this?

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  • Summary: How can you explain what has happened to Italy in the age of its current prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi? Videocracy is director Erik Gandini’s critically-acclaimed inquiry into the mercenary underbelly of the high-glitz, low-politics, skin-baring media culture promulgated by Berlusconi’s €™s ownership of the majority of the country’s television stations — a powerful tool in shaping public opinion to his financial and political benefit. Approaching the material as both insider and outsider, Gandini gains remarkable access to the opulent world of Berlusconi’s associates and the armies of willing wannabes that swarm around them, examining the key players (and their conflicted interests) and unveiling a modern Italy as both comedy and tragedy. (Lorber Films) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 8
  2. Negative: 1 out of 8
  1. Stunning, eerily atmospheric.
  2. Given the stakes, it’s hard not to wish that Mr. Gandini had been more ambitious: at 85 minutes, Videocracy can only scratch the surface. Even so, after watching it, you realize that even a cursory look at Mr. Berlusconi is crucial to understanding an age in which celebrity is now the coin of the realm.
  3. Reviewed by: Deborah Young
    60
    Morbidly fascinating Swedish doc about Berlusconi's Italy hits the mark.
  4. Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    30
    Videocracy is hopelessly infected with the very prurience it means to expose--again and again, Gandini returns to images of pretty women grinding away for the camera in hopes of scoring their 15 minutes.

See all 8 Critic Reviews