Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia is the last heir to the throne of Italy. He and his family were exiled in 1946 and were unable to return for the next 56 years. He has been the center of many... upsets. The most recent were the charges of criminal association, extortion, exploitation of prostitution and various other pleasures, of which he was later acquitted. But in Netflix's latest contribution to the growing ranks of true crime documentaries, The King Who Never Was, the filmmakers zero in on the scandal that really made him famous: his 1978 arrest for the murder of Dirk Hamer, of 19-year-old, and the 38-year-old later campaigning for Hamer's sister, Birgit, to get some answers.
In the summer of 1978, Birgit and her brother joined a group of glamorous young Italian friends on a trip to Cavallo, a French island near Corsica and the Savoy family's playground. “We weren't few or quiet,” says one of the friends now, still glamorous in middle age and still incredulous how the fateful night played out. She feels that the Savoy family could legitimately have found them annoying. They also "borrowed" the boat tied to Emanuele's boat in the bay where his own three boats were moored, to take them to a restaurant and return at night. Later that night, Emanuele set out to retrieve it.
Stars: Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, Prince Emanuele of Savoy
He took the rifle from him. "Because in Corsica, danger is always around the corner," she says now. Two shots were fired. One traveled through the cabin walls of the nearby boat Dirk was sleeping on and struck him in the stomach. Emanuele was arrested and a few days later he signed a letter admitting liability for what would turn out to be a fatal injury. Months later, after 19 surgeries, Dirk died. The day before doing so, Emanuele was rescued and left Corsica for Switzerland.
Birgit's fight for the crown prince to stand trial for the death of her brother began. The documentary follows the next four decades of missing documentation, missing evidence, stalled (or never started) investigations, allegations of witness intimidation, and statements by Marina, Emanuele's wife, so dedicated to her husband's cause over the years. following as Birgit is to yours. that the hospital doctor who first treated Dirk said he had been shot at point blank range. One of the visiting Italians had a gun, and when it was found on the boat, Emanuele's lawyers were very amused.
There could have been another shooter! It probably was! Almost certainly, in fact! In footage from the time, one of them is seen making what he seems to consider not just a relevant but a decisive point. "This is the first time since Marie Antoinette," he says dramatically, "that a member of the royal family has been imprisoned." Emanuele was not tried until 1989, after which he was found guilty only of possession of a firearm without a license.
Birgit remembers scouring the newsrooms, trying to publicize the case over the years as she threatened to fade into obscurity, and finding journalists unwilling or unable to publish articles about the event. At every turn for decades, she says, she has been thwarted by Emanuele's influence: there is still power even behind a lost throne. The King Who Never Was presents the differing accounts of what happened that night, the unsatisfactory conduct of the trials that took place, and Birgit's (and, perhaps more regrettably, Marina's) astonishing drive and persistence as they unfolded across Europe. for many years.
If the film opens with a slight feeling of scraping a barrel, a not even 1978 murder by a pseudo-real the international market has largely never heard of? Come on! – It soon becomes justified as a test of how much good his life can go if he has enough power, business connections, money and private travel plans. It picks up on the common thread of the genre, the contingency of freedom and justice in all things that should have absolutely nothing to do with them, and adds a royal touch without sensationalizing or gorging on everyone's opulence and wealth. those involved. It gives plenty of room for all the main characters to tell their stories without interference, and if one side seems to crave indulgence and display an extraordinary amount of self-pity while the other seems, frankly, to transcend all earthly failings and make you want to lead a life better, well, that's in each of them.
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