I can't really say I am a fan of Paolo Sorrentino's cinema, I mean, I do respect it, there's a picturesque quality to his films that is undeniable, but "Il Divo," "The Great Beauty," and "Youth" felt like empty Fellinni-esque exercises. Nonetheless, I was looking forward to his Silvio Berlusconi biopic, starring Toni Servillo as the formerly disgraced Italian Prime Minster.
There were rumors that it was submitted at Cannes, but it never showed up — later rumors pointed to that festival’s head, Thierry Fremaux, blatantly rejecting the film. Then came the Venice Film Festival, a no-show as well. It did show up at the Toronto Film Festival, where it garnered, unsurprisingly, mixed reviews. “Loro” was eventually released in Italy on September 13th, 2018.
Coincidentally, or not, the American release date has finally been announced and it looks like Sorrentino’s epic will be released exactly a year after the Italian release date, on September 13th, 2019. In Italy the biopic was released as two separate movies, both 100 minutes in length, but the American version seems to have cut a good chunk of it and now sits at 145 minutes, 55 minutes less than the two movies combined. As you can tell by the reluctance in my writing, I’m in no rush whatsoever to see this.