To be sure, the director's a formidable film artist, technically accomplished and sensationally riveting when working at the top of his game. That's part of what makes Vincere such a grandiose whiff. A younger filmmaker might be forgiven the flashy, combustive excesses ofVincere's thunderous march through time, which neither advances a coherent vision of epoch-defining events nor does the hard work of establishing Dalser's legitimacy as a saintly figure worthy of sustained empathy.