Aahana Swrup
‘The Big Fake’ is an Italian historical drama set in Rome in the 1970s, which becomes the backdrop for the criminal undertakings of a skilled artist. When Toni from Duchessa comes to Rome with his two best friends, Vittorio and Fabione, they all have big plans of changing their lives for the better. While the latter two have ambitions of priesthood and politics, Toni is an artist who wants to be the best in the city. However, when his paths cross with an art dealer, Donata, he discovers a different truth about his artistry. As it turns out, he has a knack for mimicry, which makes him the perfect proprietor for an underworld crime circuit of art fraud through forgeries of well-known pieces. Soon enough, the painter finds himself running in circles with all the wrong kinds of people, including an elusive man in a suit who brings him all sorts of opportunities. Eventually, these opportunities, tainted by the political unrest brewing in the city, cast a looming and dangerous shadow over Toni and those closest to him. SPOILERS AHEAD!
The Big Fake Plot Synopsis
Toni, Vittorio, and Fabione all grew up together in their small town. Although their ambitions differed, their friendship remained strong through the years. As a result, when the time comes, all three men leave their town to try their luck in Rome together. Vittorio, the priest, finds his congregation, while Fabione remains a worker, and Toni tries to strike it big as a painter in the streets of the city. Eventually, after the latter finds himself at a party in the house of some successful, if melancholic, artist, he meets Donata, the art dealer largely responsible for the former’s success. As Toni and the art dealer go home together, the latter learns about his own artistic ventures. While she sees nothing of note in his practical personal art, she’s fascinated by an imitation he had made of Bernini’s self-portrait. After testing his skill with another piece, she offers to sell it and bring him more business in the future if he continues making the right kinds of imitations.
Thus, the two strike up a relationship, of both the professional and romantic variety. Around the same time, Fabione knocks on his door with a heist plan. As it turns out, the worker has gotten himself involved with the militant far-left organization Red Brigades. The robbery, at a gun shop, is in service of the cause. Although the painter doesn’t care much for politics, he ends up helping Fabione out for the sake of their friendship. However, he makes the mistake of mentioning the job to his new acquaintance, Balbo, a connection he had made through Donata. Balbo was part of the city’s underworld gang and had affiliations with opposing political sentiments. Initially, he doesn’t pose much of a problem, and in fact, helps Toni set up his atelier. In the months that follow, his and Donata’s partnership continues to strike gold, quickly ascending among the painters in financial and social circles.
Simultaneously, Toni also continues to do the occasional odd forgery job for Balbo and his associates. Soon enough, he becomes known for his work with quick passports and other official documents. Meanwhile, trouble begins to brew in the city’s political climate as the Italian Prime Minister, Aldo Moro, gets kidnapped by the Red Brigades. Within the same month, Balbo introduces the forger to an elusive man, known only as the Tailor. The latter wants Toni to do a unique forgery job and draw up a fake communication by the Red Brigades, announcing the death of Moro. Despite the dubious job, the surrounding danger compels the protagonist to comply without protest. It doesn’t take long for the Tailor to rope Toni into more dangerous missions as he and his mysterious accomplices try to set up a sting operation for Fabione and his allies.
Furthermore, Moro’s actual dead body also turns up under mysterious circumstances. Balbo begins to suspect the Tailor to be behind the entire thing, asserting that he wants to form a coalition government with the communist party. As such, things quickly begin to turn upside down for Toni. His relationship with Donata crumbles, Fabione goes missing, and Balbo becomes the victim of a suspicious car accident. Additionally, the Tailor stays on Toni’s tail, attempting to use his connection to the Ref Brigader in order to retrieve Moro’s memoir, which he wrote during his abduction. When he refuses to comply, a bunch of masked men invade his house and break his hands. Thus, Toni begins to realize he needs to secure his future and make his exit from the dangerous city. However, in doing so, friendships are tested, and moralities bend before they ultimately break.
The Big Fake Ending: Does Vittorio Die? Did Toni Set Him Up?
Shortly after Balbo’s death, Toni comes into possession of Moro’s memoir, thanks to Fabione. Nonetheless, shortly thereafter, the latter ends up dying before he can leave the city and hide away in safety. Thus, one thing becomes clear: the memoir has the potential to become both his ruin and salvation. If he hands the book over to the Tailor, he would be signing his own death certificate. Yet, if he manages to hold on to it just long enough, he can use it as life insurance until he can find a way to get out of the country. Therefore, he decides to hide the memoir in Vittorio’s safe while he shifts his focus elsewhere. Fleeing the country will require some quick and big bucks. Even though the night of the attack had rendered Toni incapable of painting anymore, he was still a skillful thief.
As a result, the artist comes up with the plan for a grand heist. He uses his connection to Zu Pippo, who had commissioned a personal forgery from him in the past, to move the petals of the plan forward. He robs a warehouse filled with cash, where one of Pippo’s old enemies was storing goods he stole from the latter’s gang. The plan remained for Toni to take his own cut from the heist before running away from Rome. In order to get away with the audacious crime, he orchestrated the entire theft to look like the work of the Red Brigades. As such, soon enough, he had the means to exit the company and the insurance that he wouldn’t be targeted until then. Yet, his confidence in the latter ends up being misplaced. Apparently, Vittorio had sold his friend out, robbing him of his one life insurance against the Tailor.
Even so, another glimmer of opportunity appears. In a twist of fate, the hitman Tailor hires to take out Toni ends up being Sansiro, a young man whom the artist had helped out a while back. Due to their earlier camaraderie, the hitman offers him a choice to save his own skin. However, he still needs a scapegoat to throw under the bus. In the end, the same man who betrayed him ends up becoming the victim. For years, Toni and Vittorio’s physical resemblance has been a point of note between the two friends. As such, it would be incredibly easy to use the priest’s dead body as a forgery for the painter’s. Although the act in itself takes a huge emotional toll on Toni, he goes through with the plan. He leaves a goodbye letter for Vittorio, leaving him his car as a token of his appreciation. However, once the priest gets inside the car, Sansiro is waiting to empty his gun at him.
Why Did Vittorio Betray Toni?
Vittorio, Toni, and Fabione’s friendship remains an integral part of the story. Therefore, the priest’s climactic betrayal, which precedes the painter’s final one, becomes a point of major intrigue. Throughout the narrative, Vittorio remains the more reserved of the trio. While Toni is greedy and gluttonous over fame and money, and Fabione strives for political liberty through resistance, the priest commits himself to a simple and sobering life. He drives the same rusty car, orders the cheap and restrained things from the menu, and tries to abstain from any real ambition. Nonetheless, all these sacrifices end up getting him nowhere. The one thing he truly wants, the position of a monsignor in the Catholic Church, ends up being snatched from him in favor of someone with some connections and friendships. This ignites a sense of petty greed in the priest as a direct response to a lifetime of abstention.
Vittorio begins to aspire after a more luxurious life, largely influenced by witnessing the grandeur of his friend’s life. Toni has lied, cheated, and scammed, and ultimately found a great life for himself. As such, Vittorio decides to follow a similar path of decievement to achieve his own newfound desires. He asks Toni for donations for the Church and ends up using the money for his own personal gain. He misappropriates the Church’s funds for his own gain and eventually finds himself on the cusp of receiving the monsignor position he had desperately wanted. However, right then, the consequences of his actions emerge. As it turns out, the Tailor has been keeping tabs on Vittorio to potentially exploit him for his close friendship with Toni. In the end, this is exactly what happens as the Tailor blackmails the priest into betraying his closest and oldest friend.
What Happens to Moro’s Memoir?
Moro’s memoir becomes a foundational element of the narrative by the end of the story. The politician had finished the book during the last few days of his life while he was kidnapped by the Red Brigades. In the political world, the book holds significant meaning and influence. For the same reason, it becomes a coveted object that many want for themselves. The Tailor and his elusive connections, likely tied to the State, remain the most insistent of the bunch. Since the man in the suit has intimate knowledge about Toni’s life, he knows that he can use the painter and his connection to Fabione to his own benefit. As such, he puts pressure on the artist after Fabione’s death proves unhelpful in locating the memoir. By then, the political rebel had already given the book to his close friend.
In turn, Toni hides the memoir in a safe location provided to him by Vittorio. Since the chaos of Balbo’s death, the artist had managed to get back together with Donata, who was carrying his child. As a result, he was eager to find the funds to flee the country with his family and find a new start. As Vittorio betrays Toni, he reveals the location of the memoir to the Tailor. Thus, in the end, the book ends up in his hands and his elusive party. This opens the painter up to becoming a prime target for the Tailor, who can have him executed without repercussions. Ultimately, the Tailor gets what he wants and wins the memoir for himself. In the process, he lays to waste multiple lives, including Fabione and indirectly Vittorio as well. Even though Toni manages to escape from the situation with his life, the gravity of the sacrifices he has to make to ensure his and his family’s safety ends up taking an insurmountable toll on him.
Read More: Is The Big Fake Based on a True Story?
