Overview: Considered by many to be “the prince” of Italy, legendary industrialist and jet-setter Gianni Agnelli was a cultural icon who embodied strength, calm and prosperity in the aftermath of World War II and into the new millennium. This is an intimate portrait of the man who became a symbol of Italy’s post-war renaissance. This compelling portrait features intimate interviews with nearly 40 family members, friends, professional confidantes and rivals, including his sisters and other relatives; former lovers; current and former FIAT employees and executives; his butler and cook, journalists and historians. Plus, this documentary features newly discovered Super 8 footage shot by Benno Graziani and iconic portraits by Richard Avedon and Ugo Mulas, along with a wealth of archival video and personal photos that help paint a complex portrait of the FIAT leader, who was an urbane, well-spoken international figure of intrigue and a politically powerful, restless jet-setter who valued family, but had failings as a father.
Expectations: Come on, there are some subjects that you’d just never think of watching. Hell, there are some subjects that you’d never think would have even have a documentary. The man Gianni Agnelli is one such subject. I mean, I suppose you could make a biographic film on anyone in the world, so why not this guy. And also there is the fact that he is a cultural icon of Italy, so why does that warrant an English language film with play in America? Well, I don’t know, but I’ll bite and watch this one to see just why he gets this documentary feature? Is he truly that fascinating?
Gut Reaction: In a nutshell, pretty fascinating to a point. It is a through piece that goes a bit long and seemed rushed at the end, but all in all, interesting enough. The documentary, by Nick Hooker, is well constructed. It is even broken down into five parts. Part I is “The Rise of Fiat” with a family history and the starting of the company and his inheritance of it. Part II is “The Dolce Vita” about his years developing as an international figure, playboy and drug fiend. Smooshing with the JFK’s didn’t hurt either. Part III “The Years of Lead” reflects on the years of political turmoil and protest as the Communist Party took a surge. Agnelli was at the epicenter. The title of the segment refers to the multitude of gunshot assassinations during that period. 
Some who lost their lives were close to Agnelli & Fiat. Part IV was “The Coup” about Angelli searching for a successor in the midst of a takeover of Fiat and Part V, “Edoardo” is about the potential heir and only son who was unfit to take charge of Fiat and the depression Agnelli held, until his death, upon the suicide of Edoardo.
Even though this five parts chronicle the progression of Agnelli’s live well, there seems to be dual stories here. Part V is more about the political and economic battles of Italy itself. Agnelli fits into that story because he was such a strong Italian patriot, but the tone and pace seems to change during that segment for me. One aspect that did work quite well was the interviews or ‘talking heads’, as I call them that peppered the piece. That all worked because they were not boring, dry comments but lively, passionate and interesting ones. They stemmed from Henry Kissinger to Agnelli’s surviving sisters to a one-time mistress. They were family members, acquaintances and business associated that, in turn reminisced, laughed and cried. It was the best use of interviews in quite a while because they all add an excellent way of capturing the times and Gianni Agnelli the way it was.
In Conclusion: AGNELLI ended up being a surprise. It was an engaging look into an iconic Italian figure that I otherwise would never have known existed. He was indeed fascinating and the documentary mastered at showing us just that.
Next: 15: A QUINCEANERA STORY, a collection of four short documentary films, follows five Latina girls all observing the traditional rite of passage of the quinceañera, a celebration of their 15th birthdays.
