“The time has come, dear president“. With these words Toni Capuozzo introduces the documentary produced by Videonews on the memory of Silvio Berlusconi exactly one year after the Knight’s death. In sixty minutes, the television journey broadcast simultaneously on Canale5, Italia1, Rete4 and TgCom24 retraces the most representative images of the president of Forza Italia and founder of Mediaset. Under the direction of Roberto Burchielli, the historic host of “Terra!”, alternately presents the most famous Berlusconi’s speeches – including political, sporting and television successes – and the testimonials of those who have known closely the one who has lived through over fifty years of entrepreneurial activity and thirty of politics.
“Dear President, one year later” begins with the moving words spoken in Cologno Monzese by Pier Silvio Berlusconi to Mediaset employees on 14 June 2023, just a few hours after the celebration of his father’s state funeral inside the basilica of Milan Cathedral. “This is a tough moment for all the people who loved him or in some way felt touched by his generosity and greatness in a difficult moment – said the managing director of Biscione a year ago -. But, starting tomorrow, we click. And we return to being a living company, full of energy, of strength, exactly as he was in his life“.
Then, it’s sister time Marina and his account of the Knight’s last writing a few hours before his disappearance. “I was there with him in that room at the San Raffaele in Milan, in the early afternoon of Saturday 10 June, when he wrote these lines. And I will never, ever forget – these are the phrases quoted from the preface of Paolo Del Debbio’s latest book (“In the name of freedom”), also present in the documentary -. He was accompanied from the chair to the table. He asked for pen and paper, bowed his head and He began to write. I sat next to him and watched him work. At a certain point he stopped, looked up, stared into my eyes and said something that I will carry with me until my last moment: ‘You see, Marina, life is like this: come, do do do… and then you you’re leaving“.
There are also many people who, in the various exclusive face-to-face meetings with Capuozzo, spent a few minutes to talk about it how they met Berlusconi and what his presence meant for them and for Italy. In strict order of appearance: Gerry Scotti, Maria De Filippi, Fedele Confalonieri, Adriano Galliani, Arrigo Sacchi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Carlo Freccero, Urbano Cairo, Guido Barilla, Marcello Dell’Utri, Gianni Letta, Antonio Tajani, Enrico Mentana, Bruno Vespa , Lina Doris (widow of Ennio, founder of Mediolanum) and Paolo Berlusconi. “Since I had throat cancer three and a half years ago, from which I recovered, Silvio started calling me every day and called me: ‘Hi love, how are you?’ – reveals the younger brother -. Because Silvio was, is and will always be love“.
Finally, the personal memory of Toni Capuozzo himself, who concludes his itinerary among anecdotes about Berlusconi with these words: “A year later, the farewell seems too definitive to me – he claims -.
So, I ask myself what I would write if Silvio Berlusconi had been buried in that Spoon River cemetery where Edgar Lee Masters describes an entire village through the tombstones of its inhabitants. Maybe I would write like this. Here lies a man who it’s hard to imagine still – he concludes -. A man who he has lived too many lives to die completely“.
