All language subtitles for My.Way.2016.WEBRip.x264-RARBG

[Berlusconi] For many years,

many journalists have asked me
to tell them my life story.

I have always refused.

I agreed to cooperate
with Alan Friedman

because I trust him.

As Steve Jobs said to his biographer,

"I will tell you my story.

You will write what you like."

[Friedman] Not far from Milan,
in a small town called Arcore,

stands the Villa San Martino,
the home of Silvio Berlusconi.

Berlusconi is the property
and media tycoon

who became Italy's longest serving
Prime Minister,

a man who has been
plagued by scandals for decades.

For more than 20 years, Italian
prosecutors had been investigating him.

He has faced more than 60 trials
on charges of corruption, bribery,

association with the Mafia,

and ultimately,
sex with an underage prostitute.

His friendships with world leaders
helped Italy to punch above its weight,

but they were always controversial.

Whether it was his friendship
with George W. Bush,

or with Vladimir Putin,
or even with Muammar Gaddafi,

the Libyan dictator.

A brilliant entrepreneur with
a touch of genius, some would say,

his critics consider him
a buffoon and a criminal,

and ultimately, like Al Capone,
they got him on taxes.

The Villa at Arcore
is Berlusconi's Neverland,

his own private Disneyland.

One hundred and eighty acres
of parks and gardens,

his own private football field,

his helipad, his stables.

When I first went to interview Berlusconi
at the Villa,

-he was surrounded by staff.
-[barking]

[Friedman] Image makers, spokesmen,
security people, secretaries,

everyone was there to protect him.

After a long wait,
Berlusconi finally showed up,

greeting everyone with charisma and charm.

Careful, my shoulder hurts.

[Friedman] As we met, again and again,
at his house in Arcore,

we would go through
the chapters of his life story,

turning the pages, one at a time.

[speaking Italian]
My life has been a series of challenges.

It's been a battle.

Every goal has been--
was very difficult to meet,

especially because I've always set
ambitious goals for myself.

[Friedman] Berlusconi is proud
of his 18th century villa,

even though he has been accused
of buying it on the cheap in the 1970s

in a controversial deal

that was engineered
by his personal lawyer,

Cesare Previti,

a man who would later be
convicted and sent to jail

on charges of bribing a judge.

Arcore is really the place
you feel most at home? Arcore?

Yes. Yes.

It's the main home of my life.

And Sardinia.

And Sardinia for the summertime.

Right.

[Friedman] Before telling me
his life story,

Berlusconi insists on taking me on a tour
of the 72-room villa.

[Berlusconi speaking Italian]
This is St. Martin,

who's giving half of his cloak
to a poor man.

And that's where the name of the house,
"San Martino", comes from.

This is the chapel.

-[organ playing]
-[Friedman] Oh!

[Berlusconi]
I feel like they're still here.

[Friedman speaking Italian]
Those are your parents' ashes?

Yes, my father's and my mother's.

And here are the ashes of my sister,

of my little sister and her daughter
who are dead now.

-Now... they were here in the center...
-[Friedman] Maria Antonietta?

Yes, Maria Antonietta with her daughter.

Somebody put this thing here without
telling me, but I'll put them back here.

I am preparing something

to put them on display,
in the middle here.

[Friedman] After seeing the family chapel,

he wanted to show me
his private art collection.

-[Berlusconi] Hey!
-[dog barking]

[speaking Italian] I told you
to keep the dogs over there, come on!

These are The Three Graces...

by Cellini, from his school, anyway.

And here we've got... see?

Here we've got a collection
of 16th-century paintings.

This one here is famous.

It's a self-portrait by Rembrandt.

Nice, huh?

A Titan, too.

This one's really famous.

It was thought to be a Raphael
for a long time,

but then it was downgraded
to Raphael's school.

It's really nice, very beautiful.

You can really see Raphael's school in it.

[Friedman] This part of the villa
was refurbished in the '80s

when it became Berlusconi's
general headquarters.

[speaking Italian]
This is the well of the house...

where they drew water.

See how nice it is?
This is where they got water from.

[both chuckle]

[Friedman speaking Italian]
This looks like it's bulletproof.

[Berlusconi] Yes, this is my study.

I've had five sports teams.

Volleyball: world champions.

Rugby: European champions.

Hockey: European champions, rugby: Italian
champions, baseball, and soccer.

-[Friedman] This is an historic desk.
-Yes, exactly.

It's always been like this.
There are lots of mementos here,

and lots of things I did when I was
working in the real estate industry.

See, there are cities,
the satellite cities I made...

-[Friedman] "Milano 2?"
-"Milano 2", "Milano 3", shopping malls.

-[Friedman] And that microphone there?
-Sorry?

Who's that person there
with the microphone?

-[Berlusconi] That's me!
-[Friedman] That's you?

[Berlusconi] That's me singing,
when I was 16, yeah.

It's a picture of me singing,
when I was 16.

I was always the best-looking
guy around, right?

-[chuckles]
-Eh?

And here, tons of awards,
all the awards I've won.

-[Friedman] And this?
-[Berlusconi] This is...

This is the end of the Cold War,
between Putin and Bush.

2002, in Pratica di Mare, near Rome.

This was something important, one of
the things I'm proud to have accomplished.

And up there are all the trophies,

some of the trophies
of the Milan soccer team that I've won.

To this day, I'm the president
of the soccer team

that's won the most trophies
in the history of soccer.

[Berlusconi] These are artifacts
that Gaddafi gave me.

-[Friedman] Which one?
-[Berlusconi] All four of them.

I think they come from Roman ruins
in Albania... in Libya.

[Friedman] Mhmm.

-I used to sleep up here, too.
-[Friedman] Where?

[Berlusconi] Here.
I worked here, and I slept here.

There's everything. There's a bathroom,
a shower... It's a complete apartment.

There's even a Jacuzzi.
It's fully equipped.

And these are all gifts I've received.

[Friedman] "Silvio Berlusconi,
for playing a leading role

in international broadcasting.
1992, New York City". An Emmy.

[speaking Italian] These are two flags,
from where I was at the U.S. Congress.

I addressed the Congress
and they tell me that I got the record

for standing ovations during a speech.

This was a gift
from the Queen of England.

-[Friedman] From Queen Elizabeth?
-[Berlusconi] From Queen Elizabeth,

and it's a television set from 1936,
the year I was born.

At the time, Great Britain was the only
country in which they had television.

[Friedman]
Berlusconi is proud of everything,

including his fleet of private jets.

[Berlusconi speaking Italian]
This is my fleet of airplanes,

and every now and again...
helicopters, airplanes here.

[Friedman]
How many planes do you have now?

-[Berlusconi] Five. Five, yes.
-[Friedman] Five?

This is from the theater,
the opening, 30 years ago.

The exact year is... the season of '78.

'73... '78, '88, '98, 2008
plus 14... 36 years ago.

The poster is from the Manzoni Theater.

I was the manager of the theater,

and these are the posters of the shows
they did with actors who were...

[Friedman] Sure.

[Friedman] Among the actors at
the Teatro Manzoni was one Veronica Lario.

When Berlusconi first saw her,

she was performing
a semi-nude scene on stage

during a comedy in 1980.

It was backstage at the Teatro Manzoni
that Berlusconi courted Veronica Lario.

Although he was already married
and the father of two children,

Marina and Piersilvio,
he moved in with the actress,

and five years later began separation
proceedings from his first wife.

[Berlusconi speaking Italian]
I was married twice,

with two children from my first marriage,

and three from the second one.

I was always a good husband, a family man.

I always tried to dedicate
all my free time,

especially during weekends,

to my children.

[Friedman] Berlusconi
seduced his first wife, Carla Dall'Olio,

back in 1960,
when he was just 24 years old.

He met her at the train station in Milan.

Suddenly, I saw a very beautiful
silhouette in front of me,

a girl who was waving goodbye
to her friend.

And I thought, "Both of us are lonely,
maybe we can keep each other company."

But it was just a thought.
Then I left the main station,

and there I saw her again,
walking in front of me.

And I admired her figure once again.

I went to get my car,
and I drove past a tram stop

and there she was again,
with her beautiful silhouette,

saying, "Take me, take me!"

[Friedman] " Take me, take me," his first
wife's silhouette seemed to say to him.

When I asked Berlusconi what he looked
for in a woman, he was not shy at all.

Above all, you have to like her a lot.
She has to be beautiful.

She has to be the object of your desire.

I don't think I ever went to sleep,
went to bed, with one of my wives

when we loved each other a lot,

without desiring her,
without making love to her.

[Friedman] Berlusconi's villa
is filled with more

than just memories of his ex-wives.

All his life is here,

from personal souvenirs
to official prizes.

[Berlusconi speaking Italian]
These are all the awards I've won. See?

All the awards.
I've got tons of them.

All the awards that I've been given.

A thousand or so, in 20 years of politics.

Then, here... There were other ones, too,
but I don't know where...

They're not here anymore.
Where have they gone?

Strange. There were many here.

[Friedman] Berlusconi seems to think
he has a thief in the house.

[Berlusconi in Italian]
Strange, there were lots of awards here.

There were some things here that...
Somebody's stolen them.

Every now and again,
someone comes and takes something away.

Because there were some
beautiful things here that I've won.

Who knows where those things
have gone off to!

Lots of beautiful things that aren't here
anymore. Who knows.

I've got another five rooms like this one.

[Friedman] Wow.

[Berlusconi] These are all things
people have sent me.

I have 300 paintings of myself.
One day, I want to set up an exhibit.

People have sent me 300 paintings
of myself.

They often send me...
Look at this Superman one.

[laughs]

-[Friedman] And this one?
-Better not to film this one.

-[Friedman] I'm kidding.
-[laughs]

Anyway, there are eight rooms
like this here.

Full of things that are...

Don't film this one, guys,
because it's dangerous...

[woman] No, no, only in Italy...

[Berlusconi] These were gifts,
they aren't registered.

-[Friedman] And these ones?
-[Berlusconi] And these ones here

are other paintings of me, Mother...

-[Friedman] Which one is your mother?
-[Berlusconi] This here's my mom.

But I've 300 of them.
I've eight rooms like this one.

See, another one of my mom.
And another.

[Friedman] As I got to know him,

I realized that Berlusconi's mother
played a crucial part

in forming the future leader.

Silvio Berlusconi was born of a lower
middle class family in Milan in 1936.

At the age of six, he was evacuated
with his family to the nearby countryside

after the carpet bombing by Allied forces
during the Second World War.

It was there, with his mother
and his sister and family,

that he grew up the hard way.

[speaking Italian]
At school, I wasn't very popular,

like all the kids from Milan
who'd been evacuated and sent there.

And there was one boy in particular,
who was quite a bully,

and was really mean to me.

And one day, in June,

there was a storm, a downpour.

The whole school was there,
and he was bullying me again.

And I reacted for the first time.

I grabbed his head and I pushed it
down into the gushing water.

Until it covered his head completely.
And I said,

"You're never going to say that
to me again!

Never again! Now who's the boss?"

-"You are." And then I let him go.
-Did it work?

[Berlusconi] From that moment on,
I became a leader for the rest of my life.

[Friedman] If Berlusconi's childhood
during the Second World War

was a formative experience,

so were his years
at a Catholic school in Milan.

[Berlusconi speaking Italian] I started
serving as an altar boy during Mass,

then I went on to play the organ.

And, later on, I specialized
in welcoming speeches.

When important guests came, like a bishop,
or a cardinal, or a prefect,

I gave the official speech.
A lot of my aunts were nuns,

so when a cardinal came to visit,

they would also be in the audience
for the welcoming ceremony.

And they used to tell me,
"What a great cardinal you would make!"

[both laughing]

[Berlusconi] And that's how it went.

The last surviving aunt heard me
making a speech 20 years ago or so,

and she said,
"You would have made a great Pope!"

[laughing]

Well, the current Pope is almost as good
a communicator as you are.

-You even said that he does his job--
-Like I would have done, yes.

And then they say,
"Ah, you're the same age!"

And I said,
"It's true, but I look younger than him!"

[Friedman] His childhood friend,
Fedele Confalonieri,

remembers well those days in high school.

And as a teenager, was Silvio Berlusconi
already a charismatic leader type,

or what was he like?

[speaking Italian]
Well, maybe the word "leader"

is a bit much for a kid... for a teenager.

But he already showed
some characteristics, like friendliness,

and an ability to attract people
and to entertain them.

[Friedman] In his early twenties,
Berlusconi was a jack of all trades,

working as a singer on cruise ships
in the Mediterranean,

and in a Paris cabaret.

[Berlusconi speaking Italian] Well,
the thing is, working on cruise ships

was a hard job.

Because we started in the morning
with games on the deck,

-and I led the games.
-Like an MC?

[Berlusconi] Yes, I was the MC
of the games on the deck.

In the afternoon, we usually docked
at some port and went to visit the city,

which I may never have seen before.

-But?
-[Berlusconi] But I'd studied,

and I acted as a tour guide, on the bus.

Explaining, "On the left..."
and "On the right..."

But I'd read everything
in the guidebook.

Then in the evening,
from 9:00 p.m. until midnight,

the band played
and the passengers danced.

And from midnight till 3:00 a.m.,
it was me as "One Voice and One Guitar".

-Wow.
-So I was pretty busy.

Before I'd even finished my studies,
I went to Paris to improve my French,

and to study comparative law,
Italian law, and French civil law.

And there I had the chance
to sing in a cabaret.

[Friedman] In Paris?

[Berlusconi] Yes, I sang in this cabaret
until one night my father came...

They'd told him I was there.

And he sat down
in the back of the cabaret,

and when I'd finished singing,

I went back to my changing room,
and he came backstage and said to me,

"Are you planning to be a singer
for the rest of your life?"

Uh-oh. Respon-- And the answer?

I hugged him and all, and the next day
we went back to Milan together,

where I took up my studies again...

and my career as a singer ended there.

[Friedman] At the age of 25,

Berlusconi managed to convince
a client of his father's bank

to make him a partner
in his first real estate project.

-And thus began his Donald Trump phase...
-[all laughing]

...making millions as a property developer
in booming 1960s Milan.

Like Trump, the young Berlusconi
was part actor, part salesman,

and he would do almost anything
to get his first apartment sold.

[Berlusconi speaking Italian]
I had to build the so-called sales office

on the street,

in front of the building site.

I remember that it was July,

and I was a handsome young man
and I wanted to get a tan,

so I got to work painting the shack
without a shirt.

[Friedman] Okay.

Then suddenly, a couple showed up
and they said,

"Our daughter's getting married.

We live over there,
in that house over there, see?

We'd like to find an apartment here.

Could you give us some information?"

And I couldn't say that I was
also the administrator of the company...

[laughing]

...whose shack I was painting. So I said,
"Wait a moment, I'll go call the boss."

-Uh-huh.
-I ran inside...

and I quickly put on a tie,
then I went back out saying,

"Yes, ma'am, how can I help you?"
And they bought the first apartment.

And the husband said to me,
"You know, I saw a boy outside,

who was painting the shack,
who looked a lot like you."

[Friedman laughing]

And I said,
"Ah, yeah, that's my cousin, he's...

I don't want to say he's stupid but,
you know,

-you have to help your family out..."
-[both laughing]

[Friedman]
Berlusconi was a great salesman,

but as his real estate projects
got bigger...

-[both laughing]
-...he continued to get financial support

from the Banca Rasini in Milan
where his father worked,

a bank that the notorious criminal,
Michele Sindona,

once described
as being linked to the Mafia.

Former Palermo prosecutor,
Antonio Ingroia,

spent years trying to establish ties

between the bank,
the Mafia and Berlusconi.

[speaking Italian]
What was the Banca Rasini?

It was the bank
where Silvio Berlusconi's father worked,

but more importantly, it was the bank
that had been founded by Michele Sindona.

It was the bank that had been the Mafia's
treasure chest in Milan for a long time.

We managed to find some microfilm

with some financial operations that
proved there were some huge anomalies,

especially the number of holdings

that were behind Fininvest,

and holdings where, suddenly,
periodically,

large amounts of cash would appear,
whose origins were never explained.

Berlusconi has never explained
where that money came from.

[Friedman] Berlusconi flatly denies

that any Mafia money helped him
to get a start in real estate.

But he does admit that
much of his early investment capital

came from Swiss bank accounts.

[speaking Italian]
How come investments in Italy

were financed by holdings in Switzerland?

[Berlusconi speaking Italian]
Well, as far as Fininvest is concerned,

the 22 holdings
that our accountant set up...

were all Italian holdings, not Swiss ones.

Okay, but the loans came from...

In the beginning, we had some--

Trust funds in Lugano,
with names like Rezzonico--

...trust funds in Lugano
because we had some business partners,

like Mr. Piccitto,
who was a famous tax consultant,

and Mr. Rasini, who was the owner
of the bank where my father worked,

who had some legitimate funds
deposited in Switzerland,

and so they participated in the capital
by sending some money from Switzerland.

How would you respond to all
the accusations that there was a link

between the Mafia and Banca Rasini,
where your father worked,

which explains the connection?
You must have heard these accusations?

Absolute nonsense,

which spawns from the desire
to hurt somebody you're jealous of,

and who you consider an enemy.

[Friedman] Berlusconi denied accusations

that he paid any bribes
to get building permits in Milan,

but he admits that bribing local officials
was the accepted practice at the time.

[speaking Italian] To get all
the necessary permits to build a house,

you had to go, as I say,
"With cash in your mouth."

[Friedman] Confalonieri denies
all the stories of Mafia money.

[speaking Italian] Mafia money...

Berlusconi started out with
his dad's severance package, 30 million,

which he invested,
along with other business partners.

Those were also years
in which real estate was booming.

[speaking Italian] The main line
of investigation that we followed

is that, at the beginning...

dirty money from the Mafia
flowed into Silvio Berlusconi's accounts.

This was the initial hypothesis,

the illicit origin of Fininvest assets.

There were some informers, who told us...
One was named Francesco Di Carlo,

who was present at a crucial meeting,
a meeting in which...

Stefano Bontade, who was the boss
of the Sicilian Mafia at the time,

accompanied by Marcello Dell'Utri
and Vittorio Mangano,

had met with Silvio Berlusconi,
and had made a deal.

The Mafia invested in Milan
through Berlusconi,

and in return,
Berlusconi was offered protection.

[Friedman] The prosecutors in Palermo
may have suspected Mafia connections,

but they were never able to prove them.

They also investigated
the strange case of Vittorio Mangano,

a convicted Mafia killer
and drug dealer, who in the 1970s,

was recruited to manage
Berlusconi's villa and stables in Arcore.

Of all the possible candidates
who were called in to...

I believe, be a manager
or foreman here in Arcore,

to take care of the villa,
take care of the horses...

He was known as a horseman...

Why on Earth did Dell'Utri come to you
with somebody as dangerous

as a convicted Mafia killer?

He wasn't convicted at the time,
that came afterwards.

But why on Earth would you choose somebody
as dangerous as Vittorio Mangano?

[speaking Italian]
Because when I hired him,

there was nothing out about him

that would lead anyone to believe
he was linked to the Mafia.

It went like this...
When I bought this property,

we needed an estate manager,

and in particular someone
who could take care of the horses,

because we had ten or twelve racehorses.

And we published some classified ads,
but we couldn't find anyone,

and then my friend and assistant,
Dell'Utri,

remembered that there was a person
in Palermo.

So he got in contact with him

to ask if he knew anyone
who was good with horses.

And he said, "I'll come
and work for Berlusconi myself."

[speaking Italian] Vittorio Mangano,
with regards to horses...

The only horses that he certainly
knew about were drug hauls,

which he called "horses",

as the wiretapping the police performed
at the time showed.

There was one call in which
Vittorio Mangano asks his accomplice

to come pick up "the horses" at the hotel.

It's hard to believe that Vittorio Mangano
kept any horses in a hotel.

[Friedman] According to investigators,

Vittorio Mangano
was the link between the Mafia

and the world of businessmen
who were close to the Mafia,

including Berlusconi's friend,
Marcello Dell'Utri,

who was himself later convicted
on collusion with the Mafia.

Mangano, according to some, was at Arcore

to provide protection
from kidnappers in the 1970s.

What is true is that I was the most
well-known entrepreneur

around in Italy.

In those days, the Mafia kidnapped
a lot of people,

and the people they kidnapped were rich.

There were some letters concerning me,

which the prosecutors
in Milan judiciary system knew about,

with threats of kidnapping my son.

Not attempts, threats.

In fact, I was forced to take my wife
and my children abroad,

passing through many different countries
until we finally arrived in Spain.

[speaking Italian] Dell'Utri,
years after Mangano's conviction,

stayed in touch with Mangano.

Did you know
that they were still in contact?

No, I didn't know that.

So, as far as you're concerned,
Dell'Utri is not a Mafioso?

He's the best guy you could ever meet.

He's a well-educated person,
one of the foremost Italian bibliophiles.

He knows the Divine Comedy by heart.

He has a lovely family
with four children.

He was a member of the Opus Dei,
he is a practicing Catholic.

He's loved and admired
by all his employees.

I'm convinced that he was convicted,
that he's in jail,

simply because he is my friend.

Okay.

[Friedman] Berlusconi is not comfortable
with this question,

and his staff tries to help him
with some off-camera gestures.

During the shooting of these interviews,
the staff is always ready to protect him.

Sometimes they even try
to block our cameras.

Sometimes gently,
sometimes more explicitly.

[man speaking Italian]
That's enough. Enough already!

[Friedman] For Stefano Folli,
Italy's most respected political analyst,

there was always something suspicious
about Berlusconi's early finances.

[Folli speaking Italian]
I think there's something fuzzy

about the way Silvio Berlusconi
built his fortune.

I think there was something illicit
at the beginning.

[Friedman] But whatever the source
of Berlusconi's money,

even his critics agree
that he was an innovator.

I've always been convinced
that Silvio Berlusconi

was an innovator in his field,

first in the building industry,
and later on in the television industry.

So he was also a modernizer in some sense,
of a certain industrial system.

But he was not a man
who stayed out of politics.

He was a man who was very careful
to weave together his personal fortune

and his political contacts.

[Friedman]
Berlusconi made his first millions

as a young entrepreneur in the 1970s

when he invented Milano Due,

a self-contained bedroom community
on the outskirts of Milan.

What he was selling this time
was not just an apartment block,

but a new yuppie lifestyle.

[speaking Italian]
The novelty, the real novelty,

was to create, here in Italy,

a completely self-contained city,

with all the services
that ranged from daycare,

to schools, to churches, to hospitals...

There was everything.

[Friedman] By the late 1970s,

as he became a nationally known
real estate mogul,

Berlusconi was restless,
and it was then that his interests

began to turn to the world of showbiz,
to television.

[Berlusconi speaking Italian]
What are we discussing?

[speaking Italian] The beginning
of commercial television, if you want.

[Berlusconi] Yes, I am ready.

[Friedman] It was thanks to
a series of court sentences

that Berlusconi began to think
about going up against the monopoly

of Italian state broadcaster, RAI.

So he put his brother, Paolo,
in charge of the real estate empire

and applied his Midas touch to television.

[speaking Italian] In Europe,
there was only public broadcasting.

Television channels were private property
belonging to politicians.

The only people who had access
to television were journalists,

friends of politicians and businesses

that had a good relationship
with politicians.

[speaking Italian]
Berlusconi realized that this could be

an extraordinary business opportunity.

And in '78,
he bought a small television channel,

he bought some frequencies,
TeleMilano58, a local television channel.

But he realized that a local TV station

couldn't be a significant investment.

So he put together some local TV channels,

which were the ones allowed by law.

Because the law said that
private broadcasting was legal...

-[Friedman] Mhmm.
-...but only at a local level.

At a certain point, I understood that
to attract big advertising companies,

I had to show commercials,

not just locally, but nationwide.

And that's when I invented
a live broadcasting,

which wasn't really live.

I mean, we taped the shows
a few days before,

for example, on Thursday we filmed
the Sunday shows.

I put up big signs in the studios saying,

"Remember that today is Sunday!",

we made the master tape,

then we sent them
to all the television channels

which we'd brought into our consortium,
into our network.

[Friedman] Berlusconi bought up Italian
TV rights to Dallas and Dynasty,

and he brought Reagan era
American style hedonism to Italy.

♪ [singing Drive In theme] ♪

He also revolutionized the way
spots were sold to advertisers.

[speaking Italian]
Advertising agencies did everything

for businesses.

Not just the message,
the advertisement itself,

but also the positioning of the TV ad
on one network or another.

So I invented... I turned the relationship
with agencies upside down,

going to businesses directly.

-It was hard to break into that world.
-You cut out the advertising agencies?

Yes, I had to, because the agencies
didn't give us anything.

They asked 15-20%.

Yeah, but then
they just gave us some crumbs.

At one point, to convince businesses
that this new method was good,

I invented a formula
that was risky for us,

and we called it "Operation Risk".

This Operation Risk worked like this:
We told a business,

"You invest 100 million.
Instead of 100 million,

we'll show 500 million-worth
of your advertising, at our own risk.

And you pay us only
if you increase your sales."

[Friedman] Berlusconi's intuition proved
a major success and by the early 1980s,

he had created and bought
three national networks.

He was breaking into
the state broadcaster's monopoly

and he was becoming a billionaire.

But he was also breaking the law,
which prohibited nationwide broadcasting.

So in 1984, his TV stations
were shut down by court orders.

The man who saved him then
was Prime Minister Bettino Craxi,

Berlusconi's friend and political ally.

Prime Minister Craxi,
who was a friend of yours at the time,

then signed three separate laws
that put you back on the air,

and basically legitimized you.

What was that about?
People have said you paid bribes.

People have said you used your friendship.
People have said lot of things.

What's the true story?

[speaking Italian] Well, I think that
my friendship with Craxi

played a part in this decision.

I'd explained in detail to Craxi

how commercial television
was fundamental for the economy.

I was grateful to Bettino Craxi for this,
but he did it

-with the majority behind him.
-[speaking Italian] All five parties.

[Friedman] Prime Minister Craxi was later
tried and convicted on corruption charges,

and Berlusconi was convicted
for transferring millions of dollars

into an offshore account held by Craxi.

The conviction was later canceled because
the statute of limitations ran out.

Berlusconi, of course, denies everything.

[speaking Italian] I've never had
a relationship of that sort

with any politician.

[Friedman] As the months went by,

I would ask Berlusconi over and over
again about the Craxi case.

[speaking Italian] Alright,
let's come to the All Iberian trial.

It was the offshore company

that the Fininvest group

was accused of using
for illicit party financing.

And the judges convicted you

of transferring 22 billion lire

to Bettino Craxi between '91 and '92.

You were convicted, but then the
conviction was thrown out on appeal,

because the statute of limitations
ran out.

Can you tell me your version
of this story, and especially,

if they said there was money
in Craxi's account,

and there was a conviction,
how can you deny it?

I deny it because it's not true.
Bettino Craxi was a close friend of mine.

The money that political parties
managed to get, one way or another,

were essential
to keep their branches open,

for their telephone bills,
for propaganda needs, to pay for posters.

This is the true story.

Then there were also cases
of personal corruption, et cetera.

The most honest politicians
had to finance their activities somehow.

And let's keep in mind
that political parties are necessary,

essential institutions
for democracy.

So, to close this matter that,
for many Italians,

is a symbol of their hatred
towards you--

The Left has been repeating this
for 20 years...

"Berlusconi paid Craxi."

You, or Fininvest,
or anyone on your behalf,

your friends,
or entrepreneurs, or financiers...

Berlusconi and Co.
never gave a cent to Craxi,

and the conviction is a false conviction?

I don't remember this conviction,
actually.

It was probably a conviction
at first instance, or something like that.

-At first instance, yes.
-First instance, so what?

And this is part
of the anti-Berlusconi publicity.

[Folli speaking Italian] I'm not surprised
that he sent financing in various forms,

and I'm even less surprised
that he denies it.

He thinks that
when the statute of limitations runs out,

it's the same as an acquittal,
but that's not the case.

[Berlusconi speaking Italian]
Look, I'm shedding blood for you.

-[Friedman] Oh, my God. Oh no.
-[Berlusconi laughs]

[Friedman] While we were filming one day,

Berlusconi cut himself
with a sheet of paper.

But to return to our story, it must be
said that after the commercial TV stations

were legitimized by the Craxi decrees,
Berlusconi made billions,

with his ad revenues growing by an average
of 48% a year throughout the 1980s.

In that decade, he brought top stars

like Barbara Streisand and Rod Stewart
to Italy,

and he tried to repeat the success
of his Canale5 in nearby France

with a channel called La Cinq,
and in Spain with Telecinco.

While Berlusconi's brash,
Italian-style television

would translate well in Spain,

this was not in the case
in the culture of buttoned down France.

[applause]

[man] Madame, mademoiselle, monsieur...
Bonsoir.

[Friedman] After six turbulent
and difficult years,

La Cinq would shut down,

a rare failure for Berlusconi.

But on the same day in 1986,
when Berlusconi launched his TV in France,

he started a new adventure in Italy,
buying the soccer team A.C. Milan.

Longtime manager, Adriano Galliani,
remembers the way Berlusconi

made his splashy entrance,

flying three helicopters
into the Milan stadium

with soccer stars
jumping out onto the field.

[speaking Italian]
I remember it perfectly.

It was July 18th, 1986.

[Friedman speaking Italian]
If I remember correctly,

he was inspired
by Apocalypse Now or something...

Yes, there were two things.

For one thing,
the idea of arriving by helicopter,

rather than coming by car
or by the team's bus.

To give a sense of importance,
a sense of greatness.

In those years, of course, there was
a film that had been very successful,

Apocalypse Now , so we decided
to go to the stadium by helicopter,

and to use the film's soundtrack, which
is the "Ride of the Valkyries" of course.

But at the time, for the public,

more than Wagner,
it was Apocalypse Now .

[Friedman] Berlusconi still likes
to make a grand entrance

and he loves his weekly chopper ride
to AC Milan's training camp at Milanello.

[Friedman in Italian]
Prime Minister.

-[Berlusconi] How're you?
-[Friedman] Very well, and you?

Fine, thank you.

-Hi, how are you?
-Hello. Fine.

[helicopter blades whirring]

[Berlusconi] There's hard-working Brianza.

Warehouses, factories, houses,
warehouses... all together.

[helicopter engine winding down]

-Hi, how are you?
-[Galliani] Fine, thanks.

[Friedman speaking Italian]
When was Milanello built?

[Berlusconi] This was built I think
in '35, something like that.

I revitalized it a bit, I modernized it,
I added some more fields.

[Berlusconi] Ah, here we are!
How's it going, how's it going?

You look better like that.
[chuckles]

Hi. The newspapers
said you're better now.

Hi.

-How's your wife?
-Fine.

-And the kids?
-Fine.

-Yeah, are they happy?
-Yeah.

And the house?
So you're getting used to it here?

No problems?

For your birthday, we wanted
to give you a little something.

-No, really?
-[applause]

[Berlusconi] Thank you so much,
I'm honored.

In a room at home,
I've got all the presents

that Milan players have given me
over the last 30 years.

There's one in particular
that I really appreciated,

but that I can't mention right now,
because they're filming us.

I'll tell you some other time.

Ah, how nice!
Yes, yes, I understand what this is.

I've never seen so many handsome
young men as right here.

You're very handsome, very elegant,
with Casa Milan behind you,

which is the world's
most beautiful soccer team headquarters.

-So, thank you.
-[applause]

Alright, I watched the last two games.

You guys knew how to develop
a harmonious game, a fun game,

a game that belongs to a great team.

I saw that you did the corner pretty well.

But I want to remind you
that you all have to get into place

when the ball's already in the air,
or almost.

So that the defense's
instinctive reaction,

since they can't be watching you

and the ball at the same time,
is to block you from the front.

I got a lot of penalties with this system.
You've got to do it properly.

Let me also remind you
that 15-20 minutes before the end,

keep possession of the ball.

What does the coach
yell from the sidelines?

-Offense!
-Offense!

But shout it loudly. Offense!

Which means tying the ball to your foot.

Then turn around and play
in the other direction.

-So, let's see if they can hear you.
-Offense!

-Louder!
-[players laughing]

-I'm losing my voice.
-Louder, we're in a stadium!

-Offense, offense!
-Louder!

-Offense!
-Listen up. Offense!

Who did it better?
Me, right? I'm always number one!

Bye!
Thanks, thanks for the present.

-[applause]
-Thanks a lot.

Bye, bye, thanks.

Great job on all the goals,
and everything. Well done.

Thank you, thank you.

When are you going to introduce me
to your wife? [laughs]

Just to see her.
I'm old, I can't do it anymore, but...

because everyone says
she's the prettiest one.

Bye!
Take care, guys!

How many years
have you been with AC Milan?

Thirty.

Thirty years! Congratulations.
You look young for your age.

[laughing]

You almost look younger than me.

[laughing]

Bye, thanks, everyone!

[Berlusconi] I want to form a team.

I'm going to come here every Friday,
starting this Friday.

I want the Milan team
to be like it used to be.

I want them: Italian, young,
hungry for money and glory,

no tattoos, and no earrings.

The only place where I'll let them
have a piercing is on their dick.

[laughing]

[blades swishing]

[Friedman] With the repeated triumphs
of AC Milan,

Berlusconi became a national folk hero,

with millions of football fans
who soon became Berlusconi fans.

Later he would use the football chant
of "Forza Milan"

to create a national political party
he called "Forza Italia", or "Go Italy!"

[Folli speaking Italian] I think sport
was essential for Silvio Berlusconi.

He was an innovator here as well.

Nobody in Italy
had ever used a soccer team

to build himself
such a clear public image.

I've chosen to get out there
and to get into politics,

because I don't want
to live in an illiberal country.

[Friedman] He would form Forza Italia
from the ashes

of an Italian political establishment,

that had been destroyed by a string
of scandals known as Bribesville,

or in Italian, the Tangentopoli scandals.

[Berlusconi speaking Italian]
The only possibility there was

to create something that opposed
the acquisition of power

by the Italian Communist Party

was to create a new movement
for conservative and liberal Italians.

Moderate Italians, who made up
the majority of the country.

I found myself forced
to make that decision.

If you want, I'll tell you
about the evening in which I--

[speaking Italian] Absolutely, please.
When was it?

When I told my friends,
my managers, my children,

and my mother
about the decision I was making.

Here in Arcore? When was that?

Yes. I invited them for dinner.
It was January 1994.

And I looked at the situation with them.

And I said, "I feel it is my duty
to take this step."

You can't even imagine...

how they reacted.

They were all completely
opposed to the idea.

And my mom, who always had
an eye for the future, said,

"They'll try to destroy you.

Look what they did to those guys,
they got them out of the way."

[speaking Italian] What were the risks?

The judiciary system
will put you under a magnifying glass,

and will find anything there is to find.

But when he decided to go into politics,

were there already investigations
you were aware of,

or it was simply a rational analysis
of the Italian culture?

[speaking Italian]
There were investigations. In April,

tax authorities
had already come to our office.

-[speaking Italian] In April 1993?
-[Confalonieri] 1993.

And why? For illegal financing
of political parties.

[speaking English]
But you were there at the time in 1993,

Berlusconi's critics has suggested
he went into politics because

he was under investigation and thought
he could get immunity as a politician

or because your company was full of debts
and he needed to do it for money.

True or false?

[speaking English]
Completely false, phony, what you want.

[speaking Italian] This was really
the first brick laid of the castle

that was built against Berlusconi.

[Friedman] If you ask Silvio Berlusconi
if it is true that he went into politics

in order to protect his business empire
and save himself from prosecution,

you get a flat denial.

[speaking Italian] They're absolute lies,
the opposite of reality.

[Friedman] Whatever the case,
there can be no doubt

that Berlusconi launched
his political career in spectacular style.

He assembled the troops
at his Mediaset television empire.

The stars,
the marketing men, the pollsters,

the focus groups, and he launched
himself and Forza Italia like a TV ad.

He launched his party in January 1994,

with a populist nine-minute-long
videotaped message to the nation.

[speaking Italian]
I'm telling you that we can do it.

I'm telling you that together
we must build a new Italian miracle,

for us and for our children.

[Friedman] He got elected in just 60 days
from start to finish.

[Folli speaking Italian]
Berlusconi relied heavily on television,

and he relied heavily
on the image he had

as an important
communications entrepreneur,

and most importantly,
he showed himself as a novelty,

especially through his body language
and the way he presented himself.

As a completely innovative person,

even if people who were in the know
knew about his past,

knew about his relationship with Craxi

and other political leaders
of the country.

[Friedman] Berlusconi did not appear
immediately fit to govern.

In fact, he was more used to
being a CEO than a Prime Minister.

Nor did he have much respect
for the parliament.

[Berlusconi speaking Italian]
A disaster.

A disaster because there was a time...

when I participated in the work
the Parliament was doing,

which is nothing but a big courtyard
where people gossip,

where people talk
behind each other's back.

Even in Parliament, there are very few
members who work hard.

A hundred or so, maybe a few more.

So, for an entrepreneur who was used
to working from early in the morning

until late in the evening,
it was a disaster.

[Friedman] Berlusconi's first term
in office did not last very long.

His downfall came just six months
after taking office.

During a United Nations conference
on organized crime

that was being held in Naples,

Berlusconi was hit with front page news...

he had been placed under investigation
on corruption charges.

He was told to make himself available
for questioning

on allegations
that he had bribed tax officials.

[Berlusconi speaking Italian]
They put me under investigation.

which was basically enough

to take anybody out of politics.

[Friedman] Berlusconi's government fell,

and he would face six long years
in the political wilderness,

collecting indictments
and accusations of bribery,

money laundering
and corruption along the way.

But after six years,
his old magic was back,

and he was able to reunite
the Italian center-right.

[Folli speaking Italian]
Silvio Berlusconi is a tenacious man,

an incredibly tenacious man.

He's an amazing fighter,
he always has been.

Of course he's quite old now,
but in his prime he was a fighter.

And in those six years in which nearly
everyone thought he'd gone missing,

he managed to hold
his political power together,

to maintain a sense of leadership,
to rebuild a system of alliances,

and to show himself to an Italy
that clearly wasn't happy,

that was clearly frustrated, as a person
who could still hold a political position.

[Friedman] In 2001, he was back
in the prime minister's office,

and making new friends on the world stage.

Among them were two men who would soon
become Berlusconi's best friends,

George W. Bush, and Vladimir Putin.

For Silvio Berlusconi, meeting Bush
would prove to be love at first sight.

You see here, on this wall,
"To Silvio, with respect and admiration,

George W. Bush."

They were close friends,

and they had more
than just a political alliance,

they worked together very closely.

[speaking Italian] I have to say that
there was an immediate feeling

between the two of us.

[Friedman] Berlusconi met Bush
in the summer of 2001.

The two men bonded
amid the tragic violence

of the G8 summit in Genoa that July,
where protests turned bloody

and the police shot and killed
a young man.

It was at the same summit
that Berlusconi met another world leader

who would become a close friend,
Vladimir Putin.

[speaking Italian]
I liked him immediately,

-and I think he liked me right away, too.
-[Friedman] Mhmm.

Then, little by little,
it turned into friendship.

-And, within a year...
-[Friedman] Mhmm.

...I managed to do something
as a statesman

that I'm very proud of,

which is what happened
in Pratica di Mare, in Italy, in 2002,

and which, in my opinion,

ended the Cold War
which had been devastating us for decades.

[Friedman] Most of his critics are not
so generous about Berlusconi's role,

and note that the Cold War had ended
ten years before the flashy

treaty signing ceremony
at Pratica di Mare.

Yet even critics such as long time
Rome correspondent of Le Figaro,

Richard Heuzé,

say there is no doubt about
the symbolic importance of the event.

It was perhaps the high water mark
in post-Cold War relations

between Washington and Moscow.

[speaking Italian]
The NATO treaty signed in Pratica di Mare

was important because, for the first time,

Russia was back in the global context,

and given a place
in international negotiations.

And this was really thanks to Berlusconi.

His personal relationship
with the Russian leader

had a lot to do with
making this summit a success.

[Friedman] As Moscow and Washington
began to cooperate

in the war against terrorism,

Berlusconi did play
a behind the scenes role

as intermediary between East and West.

Putin himself acknowledged this
during a rare interview at the Kremlin.

[speaking Russian]
I hope you agree with me that the man

who had stayed in power in Italy
the longest

in the post-war period...

This means that he had managed
not only to attract

the attention of the Italians...

[speaking Italian] Vladimir is the exact
opposite of what the Western media

has wanted to make him out to be.

He is a real warrior for freedom

and for democracy in his country.

[speaking Russian]
...but also to persuade them

that all his actions are geared

to the attention of the Italians

to safeguarding the interests
of the Italian people.

That was the first point.

The second is that he is a remarkable,
straightforward,

very interesting person.

And all this taken together, I believe,
certainly gives us a reason to believe...

that as a politician and as a person,

Silvio Berlusconi will definitely
take his due place

in Italian history.

[Friedman] But it doesn't stop there.

Putin also confirms that he and Berlusconi
saw eye to eye on a range of issues,

from being opposed
to the invasion of Iraq by Bush,

to their opposition to regime change
in Libya at the height of the Arab Spring.

The discussions we have had
have not been limited, as a rule,

though of course we talk about
these issues as well,

but we say relatively little
about the current issues of the day.

He talks more about issues
from a longer-term perspective.

This concerns Italy as well as Europe,

as well as global,
international relations.

And in this sense he is, of course,
quite an outstanding man.

[Friedman] They are certainly
an odd couple,

and Berlusconi denies accusations
that he has been a mouthpiece for Putin,

but he does tend to defend him
all the time,

even over Russia's annexation of Crimea.

[Berlusconi speaking Italian]
All Putin did was to bring his forces...

to the borders of Crimea,

which didn't mean, "I am invading you",
but rather, "Be careful.

Don't make any decision
that goes against the desires

of the Crimean people,
because if you do, I'm ready to enter."

[Friedman] There is no way around it.
Berlusconi adores Putin.

[Berlusconi speaking Italian]
I don't want to compare him to anybody.

I just want to say that Putin
is a determined person, a deep person.

He has a mild and gentle character.

When it comes to human relationships,
as a friend, he's very sweet.

[Friedman] Vladimir Putin
even defends Berlusconi

when it comes to his dozens
of indictments and trials.

[Putin speaking Russian]
I would like to raise one thing.

Mr. Berlusconi started in politics
in 1994, I guess.

He got involved in politics in 1993,
and he became the Prime Minister.

Before that, he had been doing business,

and he never had any problems
with the law enforcement agencies.

But once he started to be
the Prime Minister,

there were about three dozen
criminal cases initiated against him.

[Friedman in Italian]
What's this room?

[Berlusconi] These
are all things I've received as gifts.

This is St. Petersburg.

That's me in the photo,
but it's not actually me.

This is Putin who saw me, and he said,

"I don't want Prodi,
but Silvio Berlusconi."

So they put me in. [laughs]
See how they know how to change history?

This is my little sister
and this is me, too.

[Friedman] Putin spoke of three dozen
cases against Berlusconi,

but, in time, Berlusconi would face
more than 60 trials in all,

and they would color and define his life,

almost as much as
his three election victories.

For 20 years,
Berlusconi would dominate his nation,

but always amid scandal.

[speaking Italian]
I am absolutely sure of my conduct.

I always have been.

As you know, in over 60 trials,
we'll discuss them later,

they managed to convict me just once.

Twenty-three years of investigations,
indictments, trials, how do you respond...

Forgive me, but it's actually
a lot more years than that.

Add all the years of Silvio Berlusconi
the entrepreneur,

and you'll see that it's almost 50 years
of investigations and trials.

[Friedman] How many legal costs
have you incurred in these 20 years?

-You said 600 million?
-[Berlusconi] Almost 600 million.

-Euros?
[Berlusconi] Euros.

[Friedman] Berlusconi's political rivals
say he escaped justice many times

by changing the laws
to decriminalize certain crimes,

to give himself immunity,
and to shorten the statute of limitations.

[Ingroia speaking Italian]
The laws have changed.

I mean, Berlusconi has managed to change
the laws so he would go unpunished.

So he'd say,
"The judiciary system can't convict me."

But if they did get near
to convicting him,

thanks to his majority in the Parliament

and thanks to his power of influence
through mass media in Italy,

because that's what happened,

he managed to change
the way Italians think,

to make them start distrusting
the judiciary system,

to change the political and cultural
direction the country was taking,

because nowadays the country
is a bit more like Berlusconi,

both culturally and mentally.

And thus he managed to find a solution,
to shorten the statute of limitations.

Many times, Berlusconi managed
to escape conviction,

not because he was absolved of the crime,

but because the statute of limitations
had run out.

But during the trial,

the statute of limitations
had become much shorter.

Berlusconi's been very good
at changing the rules.

[Friedman speaking Italian] The accusation
is that Berlusconi came to power,

and made a series of ad personam laws,

starting with the decriminalization
of false accounting, et cetera, et cetera,

which helped him
to avoid being brought to justice.

What do you have to say
about these accusations?

Nonsense. Nonsense. Nonsense.

Let's take an example,
false accounting...

You're not going to let me
enjoy myself, are you?

-All these stories, for us--
-Prime Minister...

[Berlusconi] Stories repeated
over and over again...

-Prime Minister--
-...where everything was cleared up--

Prime Minister Berlusconi, we have done
24 interviews in the last 14 months.

This is our 25th.

I would be absolutely negligent
if I did not ask you

about all the accusations
that have been made against you.

Alright, alright.

The most serious accusation
that we've discussed--

Regarding this--

You've been accused of Mafia relations,

corrupting Craxi, lots of things,
Prime Minister.

-[Berlusconi] Exactly.
-It's important to clarify this point

for the public, for once and for all,

in a book in which
I tell the story of your life.

-You're a foreigner.
-But even in Italy...

[Friedman] I'm not here to put you
on trial, but to clarify things.

Four of five questions.

Bear with me please,
we've almost finished.

I trust you.

[Friedman] In early 2011,

Berlusconi was indicted
on charges of having had sex

with an underage prostitute,
the 17-year-old Ruby the Heartstealer,

the Moroccan-born Karima El Mahroug.

The Milan magistrates had landed
what seemed to be a body blow.

It was all about the so-called
"Bunga Bunga parties",

the allegedly notorious nights
of lap dancing and fetish sex

at the villa in Arcore.

Berlusconi denied everything,

but he did offer a most unusual tour
of the room he claimed

was the infamous Bunga Bunga room.

[speaking Italian]
Now I'll show you the cult room,

of these famous Bunga Bunga parties.

-Are you brave enough?
-I'm brave enough.

-Let's go then.
-[Friedman] Let's go.

Over here?

-Are you ready?
-This is the Bunga Bunga room?

-[Berlusconi] Here it is.
-This is just a big dining hall.

[Berlusconi] It is a dining hall,
and this is where the soirees took place.

I sat here,
the orchestra was up there.

There you go.

It's a table that's set the way it was
at those parties. Nothing's changed.

As I told you, I continued,
and I still continue,

to host these dinner parties,
with various guests.

On that particular occasion,
there was an unusual number

of pretty girls from the world of cinema,
of television...

I work in television, in cinema,
et cetera, so they were very happy

to come to the Prime Minister's house,
the President of Milan's house,

to the house of someone
who works in the movie industry

and who's won Oscars for his films,
who works in television,

and, if you don't mind,
I also think I'm quite a fun person.

Pretty unusual,
as far as Prime Ministers go.

-[Friedman] Where was Ruby sitting?
-[Berlusconi] I can't remember!

-[Friedman] But she was one the guests?
[Berlusconi] Yes.

[cameras clicking]

[Friedman] Berlusconi tells me that this
is the famous Bunga Bunga room,

but Ruby the Heartstealer
has a different version.

[woman speaking Italian] What was it like?
What was the room like?

[Ruby] As soon as you entered,
there was a console table

with some armchairs next to it.

And there was a column,
and some other armchairs,

arranged in a square.

[woman] Was there a lap dance pole?

- [Ruby] Yes.
- [woman] Okay.

[Ruby] And then,
when the music was playing,

some girls started dancing.

Some were dressed like nurses.

I saw...

I remember some of their names, like
Nicole Minetti who was dressed as a nun.

-There was also Marysthell, who I'd seen--
-[woman] Marysthell Polanco?

[Ruby] Yes, she was dressed
as two different characters,

one was Obama, and the other one
I didn't know who it was at the time.

Later I found out
that her name is Ilda Boccassini.

[Friedman] And where does
the term "Bunga Bunga" come from?

"Bunga Bunga" is a story,
which comes from a real event.

Gaddafi always wanted me to come to
the ceremony of the "King of the Kings".

One year I couldn't go because
I had a very important commitment.

So he said to me,
"Send me two of your guys."

So I chose two delegates
and I sent them to him.

And here's where the story begins.

These guys are taken
by the only revolutionary tribe there is.

They're taken to this village,
tied to a stake,

and the people start doing
a tribal dance around them,

with guttural shouting, and the only word
they could understand was:

"Bunga Bunga, Bunga Bunga."

Then the dance finishes,

and the witchdoctor
goes over to Cicchitto,

one of the two, and he says,
"You! Die, or Bunga Bunga?"

Like anyone would have done,
between dying and "Bunga Bunga",

he says, "Bunga Bunga!"

-[squeals]
-[Friedman laughing]

And all the warriors
of the village screw him.

Then the witchdoctor
goes up to the other one, to Bondi,

and he says to him,
"You! Die, or Bunga Bunga?"

And Bondi, having seen what
had happened to Cicchitto, said, "Die!"

"Ah, fine, you can die.
But first, a bit of Bunga Bunga!"

[both laughing]

[Friedman] Although he would
eventually be acquitted

on the child prostitution charges,

Berlusconi would later be indicted again,
this time on accusation of bribing

dozens of the girls to buy their silence
and commit perjury in the original trial.

Once again, he denied everything.

[Berlusconi speaking Italian]
All the female guests, even to just one...

of these dinner parties of mine,
saw their names in the newspaper.

And from that moment on,
their names were linked to this trial,

and looking up their name on the Internet,

they found themselves
defined as "Berlusconi's escorts",

like the judges
wanted them to be defined.

Their lives were ruined once and for all.

They can't manage to have a family
or find a serious boyfriend,

they can't find a good job, not even
in my companies, not even at Mediaset,

because the show runners
and directors refuse to hire them.

They can't find a house.

There's nobody who will vouch for them,
because they don't have a stable job.

I've always said
that I am not guilty of anything

because I'm not at fault
for what happened.

But I feel like I've caused this for them,

because it was their presence at these
dinners that led to these girls' ruin.

So, I've helped them, I still help them,
and I'll continue to help them,

until they manage
to get out of this situation of ruin.

[Friedman] During this interview,

Berlusconi's girlfriend,
Francesca Pascale,

who is 50 years his junior,

was listening
as she stood at the portico of the villa.

Francesca Pascale used to work
in local television in Naples.

They have been together since 2012.

While playing in the garden
with her favorite pet poodles,

Dudu and Dudina,

Berlusconi's girlfriend seemed to be
making jokes that referred to the trial

Berlusconi have faced on charges
of sex with an underage prostitute.

[Pascale speaking Italian]
Two underages... Dudino!

[speaking Italian]
Would history have been kinder to him

if he had been a bit more discreet
when it came to his private life?

[speaking Italian] More discrete, yes,

Berlusconi could have avoided
a lot of things.

But what exactly did he do?
That's the point. What did he do?

Did he lead a...

Forget it,
a minor into prostitution?

No, let's not forget it
as long as I've brought it up.

-You don't seem to think so.
-Come on, guys!

Were you ever invited to one
of the so-called "Bunga Bunga" parties?

No, because I wasn't interested
in going there.

I mean, he showed me the room,

and he said,
"This is the Bunga Bunga room,

nothing happened here,
we had dinner parties,

there were songs, but there wasn't--"

Berlusconi also loves to sing,
loves to have people around.

Then, let's be frank, he was all alone.

-His didn't have a wife.
-At his house.

He was at home, in private...

For a time, everyone
who went to Arcore was questioned,

as if they were Mafiosi,
as if they were gangsters.

That's what's wrong with this country.

Not the fact that Berlusconi
had a few girls around him

with whom he wanted to do
whatever it was he wanted to do.

[Friedman] By 2011,
Berlusconi's Bunga Bunga scandal

had erupted onto the front pages
of newspapers around the world.

He was on trial for having sex
with an underage prostitute.

Italy was aghast.

Berlusconi, already famous
for his diplomatic gaffes,

became something of a joke
among the world leaders.

[indistinct chatter]

[Heuzé speaking Italian]
The Bunga Bunga scandal

was certainly terrible for him

because he found himself
in conflict with the Church,

and in Italy, the church
plays a very important role.

He found himself in conflict with women,

and Italian women are very important
when it comes to getting re-elected.

And his behavior wasn't very...

elegant, so to speak.

[Friedman] Then, everything changed.

[yelling]

The Arab Spring exploded
in Tahrir Square

and quickly spread from Cairo
to neighboring Libya.

-[gunshot]
-[yelling]

An emergency Libya summit was called
by President Sarkozy of France,

who for years had feted Gaddafi,
welcoming him to Paris,

and trying to sell him
French fighter jets.

But now, Sarkozy's approval rating
was in free fall.

He had backed the wrong dictators
at the start of the Arab Spring.

[yelling]

Now, an aggressive and angry Sarkozy

wanted to use his French jets
to bomb Gaddafi.

At the Paris summit, he argued his case
for regime change in Libya

to Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

Mrs. Clinton, in what would later be
criticized by some as a terrible mistake,

backed Sarkozy in his quest
to bring down Gaddafi.

Silvio Berlusconi tells a different story.

[speaking Italian]
When Sarkozy started bombing Gaddafi,

even before the summit had begun,

Hillary Clinton and Silvio Berlusconi,
you agreed that it was a mistake to--

Absolutely, yes. And I explained
my position to Mrs. Clinton.

Gaddafi had originally been an enemy
of the United States and of the West.

You see, I tried to avoid this operation
in any way possible...

because by then, Gaddafi,

even though you criticize him
for many things he's done,

had been "tamed", if you will,

by his friend Silvio Berlusconi.
We had become friends,

and he had accepted
that he had to cooperate with Europe,

to improve the image
that Europeans had about him.

[Friedman] In Berlusconi's judgement,

only Gaddafi
could hold the country together.

I explained

to my Western colleagues

that Libya was held together
only thanks...

to Gaddafi's dictatorship,
if you want to call it that.

And that it was divided into 105 tribes,

who got together every year,

and agreed that Gaddafi
was the King of Kings.

These tribes were heavily armed
and were fighting against each other.

And now we can see
what's happening to Libya,

how Libya's become a powder keg,

how arms are trafficked from Libya
all over the place,

especially where Al Qaeda
is organizing revolutions.

[Friedman] But Berlusconi
was outmaneuvered by Sarkozy,

with the backing of Hillary Clinton.

[speaking Italian] When France,

and when the Western countries
on the whole say,

"Enough of Gaddafi,”

and when Gaddafi
sends his tanks to Benghazi,

and when Sarkozy decides
to send French fighter planes

to destroy tanks at night,

Berlusconi was taken by surprise
because he hadn't been informed.

[Friedman] Berlusconi has his own theory
of why countries like Libya or Iraq

should not be governed as a democracy.

[speaking Italian] Back in 2003,

I learned of the United States' plan,
of George Bush's plan,

to declare war on Saddam Hussein,

I wanted to try to avoid this mistake,
so I went to Washington,

and I asked George Bush
if I could meet with all his top aides.

So I had a luncheon with them, along
with my assistant, Valentino Valentini.

And I tried to explain...

my position on Iraq to them,
which is very simple to explain.

It's a country whose borders
were artificially drawn,

inhabited by three ethnic groups
who have always been in conflict,

with a 65% illiteracy rate.

A country like that cannot be governed
as a democracy.

It's got to be governed by a regime,
by a leader,

who is preferably not a dictator,

not a bloodthirsty dictator like Assad,
or like the King of Jordan,

or like the King of Morocco
were considered.

But not by a democracy.

[Friedman] But alongside the Arab Spring

came another even more
destabilizing factor for Berlusconi.

2011 also saw the start
of Europe's worst financial crisis

since the Great Depression,

the Euro crisis.

Greece was bankrupt,
markets were in turmoil,

speculators were targeting Italy.

It was a tempest of unprecedented
proportions and a weakened Berlusconi

was struggling to keep his government
together and maintain his credibility

and Italy's credit rating.

[speaking Italian]
During that summer of 2011,

Berlusconi was a leader
who had been voted in

thanks to his leadership skills,

but he didn't actually
use these skills in government.

He used them to win the elections,

but not to lead his government
towards reforms.

And he was always bowing down
to the interests

of the different people
who made up his government.

The continuous scuffles
he had with his allies, or pseudo-allies,

also showed a weakness
in his leadership.

This was the problem.

This led Berlusconi to lose control
of the situation at a certain point.

[Friedman]
By the end of that summer of 2011,

with speculators attacking Italy
and Berlusconi's credibility seeping away,

Sarkozy and Merkel
decided that the only solution

was to try and replace Berlusconi
as Italy's Prime Minister.

Thus began an international intrigue,

or as former US Treasury Secretary
Tim Geithner called it,

a "scheme" by European officials
to try and force Berlusconi from power.

The idea was to use the embarrassment
of an IMF loan for Italy

to cause him to resign.

-[indistinct chatter]
-[camera clicking]

[Heuzé speaking Italian] Sarkozy
and Berlusconi never liked each other.

They disagreed on many issues,
they were always butting heads.

People thought that
Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy

put pressure
on the International Monetary Fund

to make Berlusconi fall.

And it's quite plausible
because they hated each other.

They were always in disagreement.

Merkel and Sarkozy probably hated
his superficiality, his arrogance,

his irritating laugh,

and the fact that

he didn't keep a single one
of the promises he had made.

[Friedman]
Relations with Sarkozy were so poor

that when Berlusconi arrived
at the G8 summit in Deauville that year,

Sarkozy's wife, Carla Bruni,
was careful to kiss

every other leader on two cheeks,
except for Silvio Berlusconi,

who instead got a polite
and distant outstretched arm.

Nor were Berlusconi's relations
with Angela Merkel any better.

In September 2011, Merkel was said
to be furious with the Italian premier.

[crowd laughing]

[indistinct speech]

[Friedman speaking Italian]
You've been accused of saying that

Angela Merkel
is an "unfuckable lard-ass".

It's absolute nonsense.
I never said such a thing.

Silvio Berlusconi would never say
something like that about anyone.

It was made up by someone
who wanted to do me harm,

by setting Mrs. Merkel against me.

[Friedman] By the end of October of 2011,

Merkel and Sarkozy showed
their real feelings toward Berlusconi

in an unrepeatable
press conference moment.

[interviewer speaking French]
What exactly did you tell Mr. Berlusconi?

Did he reassure you?

[crowd laughing]

[dramatic music playing]

[Friedman] The most dramatic moment,
however, came at the G20 summit in Cannes,

held early in November of 2011.

One eyewitness was former European
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

There was already something
going on at European level.

In fact, we had a meeting of the
European Council some days before,

and we had received a letter of the
Prime Minister of Italy

taking some firm commitments,
it was a long letter, I think eight pages.

So I said, if the IMF wants
to join in the monitoring,

it's most welcome, but I believe
it's not helpful to have Italy

under a program for the IMF, because it
can be extremely bad sign for the markets.

I continued to believe that
it was the right decision,

because if the outcome
of Cannes would have been,

"Ok, now, Italy is under IMF",

that could create a panic reaction.

[Friedman] Geithner would later reveal
that he and President Obama

refused to join

the Sarkozy-Merkel
intrigue against Berlusconi.

In his memoirs, Stress Test,

Geithner wrote, "We can't have
Berlusconi's blood on our hands."

There was a meeting on the
evening of November third,

started around 9:40 in the evening,
that you attended with President Obama,

with Mario Draghi,
with Merkel, with Sarkozy,

with the entire Frankfurt group.

In that meeting,
Sarkozy, as leader of the G20,

was very strong in trying
to force Italy into a program.

Would you call him emotional, dramatic,
how would you describe Sarkozy?

Nicolas Sarkozy, that I know well,
is a very voluntaristic kind of political

leader, political animal
as people usually say.

He can be extremely
energetic to make a point.

So since he was the chair of the meeting
in a way because he was the chair of G20,

he was quite, quite strong making
the point about the possibility

of a program for Italy, yes.

Because the previous day he just said to
Silvio Berlusconi,

"The G20 starts in two hours, you have
to ask for the IMF program!", like that?

-Something like that.
-[Friedman] Yeah.

[Friedman] Another eyewitness at the
G20 summit was Spanish prime minister

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

[speaking Spanish]
It was an offensive by sea, air, and land.

I remember the expressions
"Italy doesn't have credibility,

you haven't undertaken any reforms."

[Friedman] Christine Lagarde,
the supposedly neutral IMF chief

and a former aide to Sarkozy,

was trying to push Berlusconi to
accept an $80 billion dollar IMF loan,

which Geithner said would be
the kiss of death for any leader.

[Barroso] Compared by the way with what
we had done or what we are preparing to do

with our firewalls,
80 billion were not credible enough,

so we could in fact have the worst
of two worlds, that was clear.

Panic in the markets,
and the Trojka in Rome?

It would be the worst possible.

Because Sarkozy was so keen
to do a program for Italy,

he seemed to prompt
Lagarde in the meeting,

who had been his minister
until a few months ago,

and the word that was used in Italian
was that Lagarde behaved like

a pappagallo, and the Portuguese
Sherpa in Brussels said to me,

"Actually, Sarkozy
behaved like a ventriloquist. And, um,

He would say,
'Christine, Italy needs this'."

-Do you remember that?
-Yes, yes.

[Friedman] Tell me about that.
What do you remember?

[Zapatero speaking Spanish] I remember
Christine Lagarde at that dinner,

and at the formal meeting,
she was very harsh with Italy and Spain.

And that's why I haven't forgotten.

In an unjustified way, in my opinion.

It's surprising to see that the IMF,

and that's my experience during
this crisis with different IMF directors,

would play a role, a supporting role,

to the main position of large powers...

without their own opinion.

-[Friedman] Meaning France and Germany.
-Yes. Or the Unites States.

Without their own opinion.

[speaking Italian] We were called by
Merkel and Sarkozy to two meetings,

on two consecutive days,
and during these meetings,

they tried to convince me to accept help
from the

International Monetary Fund.

I assured them
that our finances were all in order,

that we didn't need any external aid,

so I refused to accept this offer,

which would have meant colonizing Italy

the same way Greece
had been colonized, with the Troika.

[Friedman] What Berlusconi
did not know then

was that Merkel and Sarkozy
were determined to bring him down.

According to an unpublished transcript
of what Geithner told his staff,

plan to oust Berlusconi
eventually succeeded,

or as Geithner put it
"they did it pretty deftly actually".

[speaking Italian] I think that
President Obama was on my side

when I was calling for much more
urgent help for Greece,

and also when it came
to the policy of austerity

that was about to be ordered
on every country,

which I did not agree with at all.

[Friedman] The White House might have said
no, but in Rome the President of Italy,

a former Communist Party politician
named Giorgio Napolitano,

was making his own plans.

According to Berlusconi,
Napolitano and Merkel talked frequently

during that autumn.

The Wall Street Journal reported that they
were discussing how and when to replace

Berlusconi at the end of October 2011.

[Barroso] I spoke with President
Napolitano on the phone.

In fact, he called me--

During that meeting?

[Barroso] During that meeting
of the Cannes.

He was aware of the pressures that were
being made on the Prime Minister of Italy,

and he wanted to call me to reassure me
as Commission President that

Italy would do everything that would
be necessary to avoid major disruption.

So I spoke on the phone with
President Napolitano on that day,

and in fact that was also my position,
to avoid a kind of a bashing of Italy

or a kind of what could be considered
humiliation of Italy at that moment.

Now, it's true that there was
already some talk going on

about a possible replacement
of Silvio Berlusconi

as Prime Minister of Italy.

[Friedman] After that call,
the die was cast.

Barroso understood
what was about to happen

and soon the entire world
would understand.

-[man] Prime Minister!
-[crowd] Buffoon!

[Friedman] Berlusconi would return
to Rome finished.

He was about to be
replaced by a technocrat,

in this case a Milan economics professor
and former European commissioner

named Mario Monti.

Merkel and Sarkozy's plan to force an
IMF loan on Berlusconi did not succeed,

but Berlusconi was
forced to resign anyway.

Just days after the G20
summit ended, Berlusconi was out.

And Monti was in.

[dramatic music playing]

-[yelling]
-[clapping]

[Friedman] After 2011, things went
from bad to worse.

In the summer of 2013, Berlusconi
was given a definitive sentence

by Italy's Supreme Court,
convicted for tax fraud.

He was expelled from the Italian Senate,
declared ineligible to run for office for

six years, and sentenced to
one year of community service.

-[crowd speaking Italian] Prime Minister!
How did it go? Prime Minister?

[Folli speaking Italian]
After the conviction in 2013,

the last phase
of Berlusconi as a public figure,

as a political figure, began.
And it was a phase of sharp decline.

It all started with that conviction.

[Friedman] It was during his year
of community service

that Berlusconi and I spent
more than 100 hours together,

as I interviewed him for the biography
I was writing and for this documentary.

He suffered from frequent mood swings,
and was even depressed in the weeks

following his acquittal
in the Bunga Bunga trial.

By the end of 2015, Berlusconi tried once
again to resurrect his political fortunes,

forming an alliance with Matteo Salvini,
an extremist anti-immigrant politician

whose own party
had overtaken Forza Italia.

[Folli speaking Italian] The alliance with
Salvini is proof of

the downfall of Berlusconi.

It was an alliance in which
he was not the leader anymore,

in which Salvini was the leader,
and one in which Berlusconi

took on a style and policies
that weren't actually his.

Berlusconi had always been
a liberal, a moderate.

With Salvini, it was completely different.

[Friedman] For Silvio Berlusconi,
it was the Autumn of the Patriarch,

a slow motion parabola
for a man whose time had come.

A new and youthful prime minister
had arrived on the scene,

Matteo Renzi, and he was succeeding with
all of the reforms that Berlusconi had

promised, but failed to deliver.

Berlusconi himself did not
want to leave the stage,

and swore he would stay in politics
until he had scored another victory.

And being Berlusconi,
no one was willing to rule this out,

even as he neared his 80th birthday.

[speaking Italian]
A Berlusconi is one in a million,

but not just in Italy, in the whole world.

Somebody who was
a successful entrepreneur,

who invented commercial television
in Italy, who went into politics...

Of course, you can think
what you like about him, good or bad...

but he's done extraordinary things.

[speaking Italian]
Silvio Berlusconi has changed Italy.

Ironically, Italy is much more Berlusconi
today than when Berlusconi was in power.

Why? Because Berlusconi,
over 20 years,

and those were 20 years of Berlusconi,

just like there had been 20 years
of the Fascist regime,

there were 20 years
of the Berlusconi regime.

I don't want to say that
Berlusconi was Mussolini,

or that the Berlusconi regime
was the same thing as the Fascist regime,

it's something different.

But in terms of molding culture and public
opinion, there are many similarities.

[Friedman] For Vladimir Putin,

Berlusconi will get his well-deserved
place in Italian history.

For others he was a brilliant
entrepreneur, but a failed politician.

[Heuzé speaking Italian] History will
consider Berlusconi

as somebody who moved the masses,

who managed to bring together
political forces from the Right

that were very different
from each other.

And because of this, he managed
to give life to the Italian Right.

But I also see him, and this is the thing
that will dominate in my opinion,

as a very superficial man

who did not manage
to make the necessary reforms

that Italy needed in order to compete
in international markets.

[speaking Italian]
The historians of the future

will consider Berlusconi as a talented,

innovative,
very unscrupulous entrepreneur.

On the contrary, they will consider
Berlusconi the politician

as a man who had the opportunity
to change the country,

to change it in time,

without making the country
pay the price of being too late.

But he did not know how to do so, or he
did not want to do so

because of his lack of consideration
for the institutions,

and his excessive consideration
for himself.

[Friedman] After my book was published,

I learned that Berlusconi
was not very pleased.

He had told me that he expected a book
that would somehow celebrate his life.

Instead I chose to tell the full truth
about this fascinating,

but flawed individual.

And after I left the villa at Arcore
for the last time in that autumn of 2015,

we would never speak again.

[dramatic music playing]

[rock music playing]