How Berlusconi will be remembered: notoriety, collective memory and the mediatisation of posterity

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which Silvio Berlusconi might figure in collective memory. It approaches this from a number of angles. First, consideration is given to the way political figures of the past have resonated culturally and the role of institutions including the mass media in this. Second, Berlusconi's own efforts to situate himself in relation to a shared past are explored, with reference to the place of three nostalgic appeals that figured with varying intensity at different points in his career. Third, Berlusconian aesthetics are investigated to explore the relative roles of kitsch and glamour. It is shown that kitsch gained the upper hand and that this also manifested itself in the monarchical aspects that his personality cult took on. Finally, Berlusconi is considered as a possible subject for a biopic and a discussion is offered of the way his life and career might be presented in different variants of this genre. Overall, it is suggested that expectations that he will be damned by history fail to take account both of the way he imposed himself on the collective consciousness and of the generic requirements of the mass media.

Keywords::

• Berlusconi
• political memory
• political aesthetics
• glamour
• kitsch
• biopic

Notes

^1. In his book dedicated to ‘the men who made Italy’, Giovanni Spadolini explicitly rejected the notion of a political ‘pantheon’ (Spadolini 1999, xviii).

^2. Clare Watters (2011, 176–177) notes that Sabina Guzzanti had him deliver speeches from the balcony of Palazzo Venezia on Annozero in 2009.

^3. The origins of the term ‘bunga bunga’ have been much discussed (See Colaprico, D'Avanzo and Randacio 2011 for the role of Gaddafi). For a general discussion, tracing the expression back to the 1910s, see http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/sorpresa-bunga-bunga-ha-cent-anni.html (accessed 12 May 2014).

^4. This contrasted with Mussolini's practice of being photographed whenever possible with groups and crowds of ordinary people. Photographs showing him isolated or surrounded by officials were routinely censored. See Franzinelli and Marino (2003).

^5. It is interesting that, as his problems with justice came to a head and his popularity began to wane, Berlusconi sat for the first time for portrait photographs which explored his ageing features in crude, unflattering close-ups. See ‘Silvio Berlusconi After the Fall’, The Sunday Times Magazine, 26 January 2014. For Ceccarelli, these showed him as ‘a decaying but vital icon’. It did not matter if this image repelled or invoked fear; what was important was that he was ‘still seen by the multitudes, in a way that was determined by him’ (2014, 7). The photographer was Paul Stuart.

^6. Some glossing of the circumstances leading up to Berlusconi's second divorce would be needed, even if it might be difficult to airbrush Veronica Lario out in the way that his first wife was omitted from representation of the leader's family in Forza Italia electoral material.

^7. A close friend of Berlusconi from high school and university, Fedele (faithful) Confalonieri has worked alongside him throughout his career. He is currently president of Mediaset.

^8. The broadcast by Mediaset channels in 2013 of several specials recounting the events of Berlusconi's trials and convictions from a highly partisan point of view suggested that moves may already have been under way to dramatise his life.

^9. Renzi brought the disgraced Berlusconi back to the centre of political life by forging an agreement over institutional reforms with him. Although the agreement proved unstable, it enabled Berlusconi to proclaim his desire to be seen as a ‘padre della patria’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephen Gundle

Stephen Gundle is Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick. He is the author of several books and many articles about modern and contemporary Italy. The most recent are Death and the Dolce Vita: The Dark Side of Rome in the 1950s (Canongate, 2011) and Mussolini's Dream Factory: Film Stardom in Fascist Italy (Berghahn Books, 2013). Among his edited volumes are The New Italian Republic: From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to Berlusconi (with Simon Parker, Routledge, 1996) and The Cult of the Duce: Mussolini and the Italians (with Christopher Duggan and Giuliana Pieri, Manchester University Press, 2013).