In the first images of the trailer we see a very young man Silvio Berlusconi interviewed by Mike Buongiorno who asks him: «You deal well with many things, distribution, publishing, cinema, football, construction, I don’t know how you do it, but has it ever occurred to you to enter politics?». He replies bluntly: «I am a man of doing, so what I do well is being an entrepreneur». Netflix tells “The young Berlusconi” in a docuseries coming out in Italy on April 11th on the streaming giant (and to follow in many other countries starting from France, Germany and Austria where it will be broadcast by Zdf Arte and Orf), directed by Simone Manettie.
“The young Berlusconi” – composed by three episodes – traces the success of the Cavaliere from his beginnings as an entrepreneur to the invention of commercial television in the mid-70s up to the political elections of ’94. The docuseries is a B&B Film production in co-production with the German production company Gebreuder Beetz Filmproduktion and with the French-German broadcaster Zdf Arte, co-financed by the Lazio Region, by the Media program of Creative Europe, also created thanks to the MiC Tax Credit .
Berlusconi Netflix series – The road to commercial TV
Silvio Berlusconi launched himself, like many in those years, into the construction business. He realizes Milan 2, a futuristic new town surrounded by greenery, where, to avoid the forest of antennas on the roofs, it is planned, for the first time in Italy, to wire the entire town with coaxial cable. And so, in 1974, a television was born under the stairs at the service of residents who could follow mass, condominium meetings, their children’s sporting activities and the advertising of the shopkeeper next door.
No one would have imagined that shortly thereafter the condominium television of TeleMilanoCable it would have transformed into one of the largest private European TV groups. Berlusconi senses a deal: private television is the business of the future. It wants lively, colourful, but at the same time reassuring programmes, and advertising must be its soul.
The monopoly of Rai is circumvented by Berlusconi’s so-called “pizzone”, a tape recorded with programs and advertisements which is delivered to all the broadcasters, scattered throughout the national territory, affiliated with Channel 5, which has now replaced TeleMilano. With this rudimentary yet ingenious ploy, a small local television station in Milan manages to make its voice heard throughout Italy and sell lots and lots of advertising.
And so, during the bloody tail end of the Years of Lead, Berlusconi makes viewers dream, describing an Italy that does not yet exist, but which will reveal itself shortly thereafter. Entire generations grow up in front of the group’s television screens Fininvestwhich broadcast quiz shows, soap operas, American TV series, Japanese cartoons, football and comedy programmes.
Berlusconi Netflix series – AC Milan also in the work
Berlusconi speaks to the consumer and advertisers, while state TV addresses the citizen: from this moment the boundaries between the two worlds will become more blurred, Berlusconi’s communication shapes a new audience, which will soon become the electorate. And it doesn’t stop: throughout the 1980s Berlusconi’s empire grows dramatically, incorporating, in addition to television and advertising, also publishing, newspapers, magazines, insurance companies, banks, chain stores and a team of football, the Milanmaking his image as a successful entrepreneur even more popular.
The docuseries tells the extraordinary story of one of the most famous and controversial European personalities. Three episodes lasting 50 minutes each, no narrator, but witnesses, capable of unpublished confidences and anecdotes. A tale full of stories never told before. In addition to interviews, the series is made up of archive material, some of which is unpublished or rare. The series uses music, archives and personal stories as key elements of a visually stunning story.
