“The Ides of March”: Clooney’s best?
Seduction, power and corruption: the cast interview

Written and directed by George Clooney, “The Ides of March” has been screened in competition as opening movie for the 68th Venice International Film Festival, with large agreements by public and critics.

The movie, based on Beau Willimon’s play Farragut North, with the screenplay written by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon, illustrates the world of American politics during an hypothetic contemporary Democratic primaries in Ohio for the President elections, in the story of the young press secretary (an amazing Ryan Gosling) of one of the presidential candidates (Clooney himself), becoming involved in that corrupted ambient.
Exploring a large-small world of seduction, with protagonists (press office, governors, secretaries and journalists) trapped in an imaginary play of seduction (sexual and intellectual) and corruption where power and win seems to be the only aim of these lives.
But where’s the line between cinema and politics, and so real life?

“I want to say that the title comes from Shakespeare: only the public will be able to think who’s Caesar or Brute. It’s a movie not about politics, but about moral attitudes, like “Wall Street”, I suppose,” Mr Clooney told in the press conference in Venice, “This kind of world only extremes that idea, because of power and money, of course. Compromises are at the bases of daily life: when you connect with others, at work, in private life, and they are so interesting. We all only want to the best thing for our aim, and temptations are all behind the doors. I approached with the original play after seen it at theatre, and loving it. It’s the eternal fight between corruption and idealism. In the States it’s so hard to govern, and so these two things mostly combines themselves. I only hope that things will change one day”.

– pic by Davide Pizzardi – www.davidepizzardi.com

According to his statements, actors Evan Rachel Wood and Philip Seymour Hoffman, confessed me in a private interview about the movie, their roles in it and America, of course.

Evan Rachel Wood: “I think that this is a movie about human beings: we are all fragile, and so, we can be easily and daily corrupted, one way or another, from sex to money. In “The Ides of March” I’m a 20 years old woman, full of energy in her work, fragile but conscious of her choices. She makes mistakes, and try to obscure them. I think that my role can be describes as the feminine one of the entire script, opposing to Marisa Tomei’s one, who’s a woman journalist really masculine in her behavior. Sex and politics? Not a new thing, in cinema as in reality, all over the World. Concerning about the USA I think that’s a place where you always have the idea not to know enough about the history of the country, that’s why I love to stay in other states, because I fell I can understand their past story, from wins to scandals. Working with George has been great: he’s an actor, firstly, so we can speak each other in the same language”.

Philip Seymour Hoffman: “This typical micro-world is seductive itself. I think that we have to divide cinema from politics: they’re two different worlds, one recreating the other, it’s all about responsibility. Hollywood is not Washington: they have much more problems there. My character centers is life on loyalty, but despite it he makes lots of mistakes. Democracy is all on votes, and votes are based on compromising. Comparing the movie to the American history, the statement in it (“despite democracy in the end, for common people one president is like the other”), is not completely true: Bush is not like Obama, because set in the same ring they’ve done so different choices”.

Considering that kind of movie as already best sellers in Clooney’s experience as director (the forth after “Good Night and Good Luck” in 2005, “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” in 2002 and “Leatherheads” three years ago), “The Ides of March” (Columbia Pictures, with production by Heslov and Clooney and Brian Oliver, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nina Wolarsky, Jennifer Davisson Killoran, Stephen Pevner, Nigel Sinclair, Guy East, Todd Thompson, and Barbara A. Hall) it can also be described as a brave-new-view on modern democracy, on contemporary social connections and on seduction: from sex to power and back, in a mixture of perfect speeches obscure point of views coming to light, and the power of communication.

Will Mr. Darren Aronofsky and his official jury award George’s exploding talent in direction?

by Ilaria Rebecchi

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