Original subtitles

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(HISSING)

MUSSOLINI: "There is always a time when lost peoples

go toward simple ideas.

The wise brutality Of strong men.

In us they find an outlet From their grudges.

Escape from the mortifying sense Of one's own helplessness.

Hope, as if by a miracle,

to reverse their own unsatisfactory fate."

MAN: Salute to the Duce!

Duce! Duce!

"All it takes is the right words, words simple. Direct ones. The looks.

The right tone."

MUSSOLINI: And Italy, under the leadership of the Littorio,

Will come to prosperity, to power and glory!

Duce! Duce!

"So you love us. You worship us."

MUSSOLINI: There would never, I say never!

Duce! Duce!

"You have loved me madly.

For 20 years you have worshipped me And feared me as a deity."

Duce! Duce! Duce!

"And then you hated me, madly hated,

Because you still loved me.

You have ridiculed me, defaced my remains,

Because of that crazy love you were afraid...

..even dead.

But tell me, what was the use?

Look around you... we are still among you."

Mhm...

Mhm...

(SUSPICION)

My name is Mussolini Benito Hamilcar Andrea,

by Mussolini Alessandro and Maltoni Rosa.

I am 35 years old and I run a newspaper that I myself founded.

I owe my name to my father's socialist faith.

Andrea as Andrea Costa,

founder of the Socialist Party Revolutionary of Romagna.

Amilcare, as Amilcare Cipriani, patriot, adventurer,

socialist and staunch anarchist.

Benito, like Benito Juarez, also a revolutionary

and first indigenous person to hold the office of president of Mexico.

I therefore owe my name To a native.

A guy who is barely 5 feet 3 inches.

A homunculus. Nothing to do with me.

Apart from the revolutionary spirit.

Today, the 23rd day of March of the year 1919, is a historic date.

I am like the beasts, I feel the time coming,

And this is "my" time.

(ARDITI SING "BLACK FLAMES")

Here are my lost people....

..in need of strong men and simple ideas.

The desperate, the crippled. The veterans of the Great War.

(THEY SING "BLACK FLAMES")

Oh, Dumini, how are you doing?

See you at dinner, Volpi.

(THEY SING "BLACK FLAMES")

You know what the Great War is, yes?

1914-1918. Europe in flames!

Four years of battles, from Russia to Italy.

Ten million dead, 21 million injured,

And an unquantifiable number of veterans, of desperate people.

Them. Who are here for me.

Albino Volpi. Multiple felon. Volunteer. Piave's Caiman.

Valiant soldiers. They had promised rewards, prizes,

The honor of victory.

Instead, nothing. Not even a pension.

Only the contempt of those who did not want the war

And that they didn't.

Amerigo Dumini, American indeed,

But he chose to wage the war for Italy.

Assault battalion and death company.

In this putrid hour of peace,

the men of war With no longer a place in the world,

dismissed on the spot, as one dismisses a servant,

Are my people. I feel Their anger, their hatred.

I have only them And they have only me.

(THEY SING "BLACK FLAMES")

It is with the shoddy material, with leftover humanity, with the last,

Making history.

You stir up their anger, you put bombs in their hands,

revolvers.

And with them ... I will make a revolution.

(ARDITES CHEER)

MUSSOLINI: We!

We who have kicked the country into war

And we led him to victory.

We who have shed blood for the homeland.

We today found the Fighting Forces!

For the future, the vanguard, the revolution!

Fascism is born today!

(all) Yes!

Fascism, a beautiful creature,

made of dreams, of ideals, of courage, of change,

That will win millions and millions of hearts.

I am sure, yours as well.

Follow me, you will also love me.

You too will become fascists.

ROSSI: By the looks of it, it was about 80.

It was good that she took the small room, we were wide even there.

MUSSOLINI: Were there still the war,

I would shoot you for defeatism, Cesarino.

Come on, Benito, even you admit it. That you expected something more

Of those four voting heads.

Heads don't count, hearts count.

- Benito. - Good evening, good evening.

You don't know how to look ahead, Cesarino,

we have built a home For our people,

If we stayed wide, better, there is room for more.

Caesar, a day will come that will not Cathedral Square will suffice, is that true or not?

100, 200 members of the Beam And I keep it low, eh.

Because there are millions of them out there as rabid as beasts.

Hmm. Oh, there's Mussolini!

- What the fuck did that guy want? - Now you get it.

MUSSOLINI: "Cesare Rossi.

Trade unionist, revolutionary.

He has the smallest hands I've ever seen in my life."

..it is we who want to occupy with our power...

"I dare not imagine the bird, but the brain, that is,

That one has a big one.

But you don't need his intelligence to figure out who that was."

Mussolini, you wanted war And you got it! Are you happy?

Poor guy, he was injured.

SOCIALIST: Poretto, the Mussolini.

In a drill, though. The war ended it in the hospital.

Poor thing, he couldn't get up out of bed, the sickly man.

- To the traitor! - To the traitor!

Socialists.

Socialists, the children Of those in Russia two years ago,

Kicked the czar out on his ass.

The great Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, known as Lenin.

SOCIALIST: To the traitor Mussolini!

To the traitor! To the traitor! To the traitor!

"Brotherhood, equality, power to the people."

For goodness sake, there are also good people.

Someone who cares about the workers, the last, the exploited.

Of fine words they know many, but actions...

..are in short supply. And I know it well, I was one of them.

(MAN SINGS "RED FLAG")

(SOCIALISTS SING "RED FLAG")

(THEY SING "RED FLAG")

(SOCIALISTS CONTINUE TO CHANT "RED FLAG")

(SOCIALISTS CONTINUE TO CHANT "RED FLAG")

Hey!

VOLPI: Eia! Eia!

(THUDDING AND SHOUTING)

(HUMS "RED FLAG")

Fierce and plastic, necessary.

As it should be always violence.

Uh-huh.

"He will triumph...

Good evening. Have a seat.

Benito, but take away a doubt, we are born to make revolution

or to bludgeon the socialists?

Because it looks to me like you're still burning. - Be bon'!

Nothing burns me. I don't give a damn about socialists.

- Good evening. - Good evening, director.

I have my own people, me. A people That will expand to their members.

Workers, laborers,

And with them we will beat this putrid liberal democracy.

- But where are you going? - To wage war on the world.

The war is not over, not for us. The war is us!

Good night, Cesarino.

"Marguerite. The only woman in the world I listen to.

Rich, cultured, refined, and it is mine."

MUSSOLINI: So how does that sound?

MARGHERITA: You know what I like the most? - Mh...

"We ask, we ask, we demand"...

What about what we ask for? Don't you like what we ask for?

Nationalizations, expropriations, seizure of church property,

workers to run the factories, are you more to the left than the socialists?

Only the socialists will never do that.

They promise it, but they don't have the courage.

An eternal wait for revolution.

We want to.

MUSSOLINI: Do we want to?

My savage does not ask, my savage takes.

We want to.

MUSSOLINI: "We want, and what we want we shout.

And what we want, we pursue it to the death.

Without the thousand ifs and buts. The infinite flaccid distinctions

and babble of socialist theater.

Thus, you make policy.

And so, you make a newspaper. My newspaper.

The People of Italy. Headlines, buzzwords, dry,

straight, straight to the belly Of the reader.

Not like that Socialist forward.

I used to direct it, and then..."

(CROWD DISAPPROVES)

You today...

..today you hate me,

Because you still love me!

Warmonger! Traitor! But go away!

Traitor!

- Go away! - Down with war!

It is a heinous irony To shout "down with war"...

..while fighting And die in the trenches!

Socialism is something that is rooted in the blood.

- Mussolini! - Traitor! Warmonger!

Do not believe that by tearing up my card,

You will interdict my socialist faith.

That you will prevent me from working still for socialism

And for the revolution!

- Traitor! - I tell you as of this moment....

Warmonger!

..that I will have no remission, I will have no mercy for all the reticent

And for all the cowards! Out of the party!

Traitor! Traitor!

12 years of my life I gave you!

12 years!

(I will not pity all the reticent And for all the vile!)

Good evening, rabbits!

Cowards!

Forward, comrades, forward!

Let's go!

Bastards!

DUMINI: Breaking news of the night, the Forward burns.

No! No!

ARDITI: Uh, uh, the Forward is gone!

Uh, uh, the Forward is no more! Uh, uh, the Forward is no more!

ARDITI: Uh, uh, the Forward is gone!

Uh, uh, the Forward is gone!

ARDITI: Uh, uh, the Forward is gone!

Well done!

This is the first act Of the civil war!

(all) Yes!

Viva Mussolini! Viva Mussolini!

ARDITI: Mussolini!

(D'ANNUNZIO: "Dear Mussolini, the die is cast. I'm leaving now.")

("Tomorrow morning I will take Rijeka with guns.")

"May the God of Italy assist us. I am feverish,"

"but it is not possible to defer."

"Once again the spirit Will tame the miserable flesh."

MUSSOLINI: No, no and no! God damn it!

Dickhead!

Gabriele D'Annunzio, great poet, hedonist, refined aesthete,

triumphant seducer, ace of the skies and war hero.

The living Italian most famous in the world.

My people worship him. They worship him.

And how can you not admire him? He is a superman.

One who at the height of the war flown over Vienna,

bombarding it with tricolor leaflets.

And what does the superman do now? He goes to Rijeka.

What is River?

An unknown continent? Atlantis? El Dorado?

A tax haven?

No.

It is a rock on the Adriatic Sea.

A useless outpost on the eastern borders of the homeland.

A clump of houses that no one would give a shit about,

If it had not become a symbol.

It was to be assigned to Italy by the Allies at the end of the war.

Instead, nothing!

They gave it to the Yugoslavs. And what does our government do?

Nothing!

Then, we started shouting.

What was the use of fighting, to die, to win?

A magnificent expression has coined for this,

And it inflamed hearts with patriotism.

"Mutilated Victory.

A mutilated victory.

Unfortunately, I did not invent it.

That's him.

Always him.

And always he goes to get it back.

Another new, resounding, act of heroism.

(KNOCK ON THE DOOR) This is not allowed!

MUSSOLINI: D'Annunzio has left for Fiume, wants to retake the city.

What an extraordinary man.

Don't joke, Margaret.

Do you know what happened seven years ago? Hmm?

I chose you.

And I rejected him. The savage, not the poet.

And I have never regretted it. Don't be jealous.

I'm not jealous. Jerk.

He treats me like a child, steals my thunder,

right now That I launched my creature.

Instead, you are jealous, but not of me.

O River!

SOLDIERS: O death!

- O River! - O death!

- O River! - O death!

If he succeeds in the feat, it is a catastrophe for me.

Me with 100 desperate people in a small room And him taking a city.

But the army is there, isn't it? How will it get through the barrage?

They will stop it. They have to stop him.

They will stop him and reject him.

- General. - Commander.

I must order you to go back.

Love of country prevents me from obeying it.

The homeland is served respecting the authority of the state.

So go ahead and shoot... On these medals.

He entered Rijeka, just like that, without firing a shot.

It is said in wings of the crowd.

And everyone wants to go.

Here, my lost people, more his than mine.

Jealous? Of course I am jealous.

It is also said to have a...

(IN ROMAGNOLO)

VOLPI: The place of the Fasci of Combat is there,

Rijeka, with D'Annunzio.

My place is everywhere except Than there, in the shadow of the superman.

If he entered Rijeka Among wings of crowds, as they say,

it is certainly not men he needs, or is it?

The government will respond, and then ...

So if they crush it, I'm under it too, if I'm there.

ROSSI: A subscription.

A subscription is launched from the newspaper,

in support of the glorious Fiume action.

That's fucking right. A good subscription.

Right.

The first rule of a good politician,

If you don't know how a situation is going to turn out, don't move.

Taking time. Cesarino knows this; he is smart.

Sooner or later I will kill it.

Joke.

Bravo, Cesarino.

And I didn't even recognize him, slimmed down, pulled, his mustache trimmed,

all dressed in black.

MAN: The count? Dressed as a mortician?

MAN 2: Not as a mortician, as a fascist.

(LAUGHTER)

I had yet to hear this one. The Count, fascist? Do you understand?

His party won a count.

Mussolini?

We have conquered many of them,

But the Combatant Federations are not a party.

And so, what are you?

We are an anti-party.

Yes, but in concrete terms?

We practice anti-politics.

And therefore, if I were to vote for it.

We don't give a damn Of the election tag.

We are against elections.

Are you against elections?

We are against elections, yes. We are against this state.

We are against the monarchy, against the church, against capital,

Against the great powers.

Against everything.

(LAUGHTER)

You may not want to understand me. Fascism "is everything."

And the opposite of everything. Heh, heh.

Director, there is a samurai for you.

For you, from Cmdr.

A letter from D'Annunzio.

MUSSOLINI: I beg your pardon.

(D'ANNUNZIO: "My dear Mussolini, I marvel at you.")

("I risked everything, I gave everything, I got everything.").

"I am master of River,"

"Of the soldiers who do not want to to obey except me."

"There is nothing to be done against me. No one can take me away from here."

"I have Rijeka, I keep Rijeka as long as I live."

"Inopportunely."

(D'ANNUNZIO: "And you tremble with fear,")

("capable of throwing only a flaccid subscription.").

With permission.

Gotta go.

- Something serious? - An anti-letter?

The imperative of support to Rijeka and the Commander,

forces me to return to the paper. With permission.

"You allow yourselves to be put on the neck the porcine foot."

"of the most abject swindler that ever illustrated history."

"Of the universal rogue: The Cagoia."

MUSSOLINI: "He is referring to Nitti. Head of the government.

An old contraption, a leftover from the last century."

The Cagoia.

(D'ANNUNZIO: "Any other country would have overthrown that man.")

("And you stand there waffling,")

("settling old scores with the socialists,")

("while we, struggle from moment to moment, against this vile government.").

("Where are the fascists, the Ardites, the volunteers, the futurists?")

("Wake up! And be ashamed, too.").

("At least puncture the belly that oppresses you and deflate it.").

("Otherwise, I will come, when I will have consolidated my power.")

("But I will never look at your face again.")

("Come on, foreshorten yourselves, lazy ones of the eternal siesta.").

("Come on, foreshorten yourselves, lazy people.")

(ROOSTER CROWING)

What do you plan to do?

The fasci are all with him, those who are not in Rijeka would like to be there.

What happened when the great Poet, ace of the skies,

War hero, did he take Rijeka?

Has Italy risen up? Did the government fall?

Nothing, Cesarino, nothing happened.

It just made us sell more copies.

You've never seen a revolution starting from a small town

2,000 kilometers from the center of the state.

It is as if Lenin to take Moscow had started from Siberia.

It is true, however.

(together) ..now enough one word from the Poet,

Ace of the skies and war hero,

-and all of ours would disown us. - And all mine would disown me.

Eh!

- Publish the letter tomorrow. - But with all the insults?

Duly cleaned up.

Title...

... "D'annunzio asks for help to Mussolini."

"And Mussolini goes to Fiume, himself."

Election campaign, voting in a month.

Benito, we are against elections.

We were. We were. Do you see that you are always behind?

Only the mules and parachutes do not change their minds!

We remove ourselves from the shadow of D'Annunzio, we scatter,

we change the playing field.

And so you go to Rijeka....

Call the fasces to congress And we will announce it, Cesarino.

With the Poet's blessing, those who love him -- will vote for me.

Ah-ah, the flight!

Only an idiot can deny A soul of divine nature on the fly.

No longer the fratricidal domination Of man over man,

But the dominion of man Over nature, over the universe!

The pilot is a superior creature, a discoverer of worlds.

Well? How are we doing?

All good!

Good! Good.

Commander, finally...

Mussolini...

..finally.

I flew, Commander, To arrive as soon as possible.

As soon as your messenger delivered the letter to me.

The comrade Samurai, who is valiant fighter and literate,

And poet himself, has been here again for days now.

As soon as it was possible for me, Commander,

"as soon as" it was possible for me.

But what I see... repays me for the impatience suffered.

As a patriot, fighter, fascist, there is only one word ...

..thank you.

If at least half of Italy looked like the Fiumani,

We would have world domination.

I am committed to everything.

But you have to understand, you have to specify the political goals.

Mhm, "political goals."

With ships deployed by the Cagoia Nitti

Pointing cannons at us?

River is not, if not... A lonely summit of heroism,

Where it will be sweet to die,

receiving one last sip of his water.

If the city is not returned to the homeland,

In ten days' time I will roll the dice one more time.

If the martyred city will be martyred again,

I will avenge her With a huge retaliation.

Commander,

we can stop the hand of the Cagoia on November 16.

With the election.

Elections...

On that day there will be a great plebiscite for Rijeka.

Election?

While this lovely people are immiserated and distressed,

And you are only able to resign yourselves?

"Resignation?" On the contrary, Commander.

I say, let's take the struggle, the Fiuman energy, into parliament.

Legionnaires here, fascists in Rome. Like a pincer!

("VORSPIEL, DAS RHEINGOLD, WWV 86A" RICHARD WAGNER)

In this regard.

In this regard, To encourage voters,

It would be necessary for you would let me have a message from you.

You know, the struggle is committed especially on your name.

You will be the president of our rallies.

You have my absolute devotion.

Vanity is his Achilles' heel.

No.

No?

No.

You will not be able to push the real Italians

To put up a vile electoral cross.

The Ardites dare, they do not warp.

The Ardites fight, they fight, they face the enemy hand-to-hand,

Knife between the teeth.

For country, glory, honor, until death.

To whom death?

To whom death?

To whom death! - Commander, do you take me...

To us.

- To whom the death? - To us.

- To whom death! - To us!

("VORSPIEL, DAS RHEINGOLD, WWV 86A" RICHARD WAGNER)

- Come back up! - How?

Go back up! The carabinieri are here!

- We can't! - The carabinieri are here, Lombardi!

We can't! We are running out of fuel!

Run, run, faster, faster!

Land! Down! Down! Down!

Holy shit, Lombardi! Holy shit!

We are being arrested!

(CELL CLOSES)

This is an abuse of power, good and good! I immediately demand...

General.

General, I am expected in Florence,

at the first national convention of the Fighting Fasci.

At the time.

Mussolini, knows perfectly well that the occupation of Fiume is illegal.

So what did he go there for?

Well, quickly said, General.

So?

I went to leverage D'Annunzio's common sense,

To find a compromise.

To try to unravel this situation, General.

("FLORENCE" CARLO BUTI)

At the hotel, he never made it there,

didn't even catch the 07:39 direct.

- Let's start. - Without him?

Of necessity, what do you do? Do they send themselves home, these?

Come on, what are you waiting for?

What am I saying? I don't know how to talk.

But what do I know, improvise.

But the one who is good with words is you.

What does it matter, I...

Huh?

Dumini, to you they know you, you speak the same language.

They respect you.

Your warrior boldness is worth much more than my words. Go, Dumini.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks to the heroes who intervened.

Thanks to men like Charles Delcroix.

- Bravo Delcroix! Bravo! DELCROIX: Fascist brothers!

The amputees, with their stumps,

Will know how to mark the death sentence Of all cowards!

Bravo! Death to the cowards!

DUMINI: We...

We who have...

We...

We who pushed... Holy shit!

We w-who. who have taken Kicking the country into war!

We...

- We who the blood... MUSSOLINI: Fascist comrades!

For Benito Mussolini, Eia! Eia!

(together) Hooray!

Eia! Eia! Hooray!

Eia! Eia! Hooray!

Eia! Eia! Hooray! Eia! Yay! Hooray!

Sorry for the delay, I landed just now.

I only now arrive...

..from Rijeka!

Long live D'Annunzio!

Long live D'Annunzio!

ARDITI: Viva D'Annunzio!

At noon yesterday,

we took off in an airplane, I...

..and the valiant Lt. Carlo Lombardi,

a heroic aviator who has to his credit 12 aircraft shot down

And three medals of valor!

Long live Lombardi!

- Long live Lombardi! - Bravo!

Bravo!

At an altitude of 4,000 meters,

a terrible blizzard swept right over us.

The bora threatened to overwhelm us!

Down with the bora!

Come on, Caesar.

(ARDITES DISAPPROVE)

Take it easy, Cesarino, take it easy.

A dense cloud curtain broke through,

we arrived above Aiello.

The roar of the engine drew upon us

The attention of all people,

as the airplane landed on the airfield.

Many people shouted, "Stop! Stop!"

I have descended,

And I confronted firsthand the top leadership of our armed forces!

And do you know what I told him?

- No. - What?

Do you know what I told him?

(all) What?

That we will fight alongside Of Rijeka until death!

Indeed!

History is made by starting from the last, you know?

It stirs their anger,

they put in their hands the bombs and revolvers,

and if necessary... electoral pencils.

We will fight in Rijeka...

..and in parliament.

- No, in parliament no! - In parliament no!

MUSSOLINI: Take it easy.

Calm down. Calm down.

No! Parliament makes us sick!

In parliament we will launch into the electoral political competition

which will have its epilogue November 16.

- No! We don't vote! - Let's not vote!

MUSSOLINI: We will go to Rome...

We will go to Rome How we went to war!

And the war will not end,

Until we have swept away All the debris of the past!

All the mummies that wither in parliament

And disclosed to Italy the ways of the future.

ROSSI: That's right!

No! We want to fight!

We are not monarchists, republicans,

socialists, democrats, conservatives, reactionaries, no!

MUSSOLINI: Right? - No! No!

We are a synthesis of all the statements

And of all negations.

Indeed!

We fascists, we have no preconceived ideas,

pre-established!

Our only doctrine... Is the fact!

Indeed!

Amerigo.

- Where are you going? I was there first! - Fuck you!

Out.

We will go to the vote alone, as in war!

To whom the glory?

(all) To whom?

To us!

To whom the glory?

To us!

- To whom the glory? - To us!

- Viva Mussolini! - Viva Mussolini!

Long live Mussolini!

Benito, calm down.

MUSSOLINI: Everybody go home, come on!

(SOCIALISTS SING "THE INTERNATIONAL")

- There he is! Get him! - The traitor!

That way!

MAN: Mussolini!

- Mussolini! - Get him!

(TENSION MUSIC)

- We will find you! - Mussolini!

There it is, it's there!

Mussolini traitor!

Mussolini traitor!

Come in, come in, come on.

MAN: Hey, Mussolini, they told me you're a dead man!

(LAUGHTER)

MAN: Mussolini!

MAN 2: We will find you!

We took 4796 votes.

No fascist candidates elected, no one, not even me.

(BELATO)

We 4,796 votes, the socialists 1.3 million.

A triumph!

And I am here, within four suffocating walls.

Alone, with my family.

Here.

- They're giving me a funeral, Rachel. - Shh! - The funeral!

(IN ROMAGNOLO)

- Pop jokes. - Pop jokes.

(PASSI)

MAN: Mussolini! (KNOCKS ON THE DOOR)

MAN: Mussolini! (KNOCKS ON THE DOOR)

MAN: Mussolini, open the door! WOMAN: Enough, silence!

(KNOCKS ON THE DOOR)

MAN: Open the door, Mussolini!

(KNOCKS ON DOOR) MAN: Mussolini!

D'Annunzio would not surrender. Supermen die fighting.

Go.

To whom death?

To us.

(BABY CRYING)

(KNOCKS ON THE DOOR)

- Who goes there? Police. Mussolini open the door!

What do you want?

Armed gang organization?

But what is this, a joke?

We didn't do anything, neither I or mine. That's a ridiculous accusation.

You will tell the magistrate. Open the door, you are under arrest!

(THEY SING "THE INTERNATIONAL")

Long live fascism! Long live Mussolini!

(EXPLOSION)

Massacre.

My name is Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea,

by Mussolini Alessandro and Maltoni Rosa.

I am 35 years old.

I am like the beasts, I feel the time coming...

And my time is already over.

(CUPA MUSIC)

(CELL CLOSES)