- the cameraman meticulously following Berlusconi's every move mysteriously turns away vaguely into the crowd just before the attack;
- you can see the swing of the attacker at Berlusconi, which misses him;
- Berlusconi immediately puts a black piece of plastic he had been holding in his hand (?) over his face (but in the moment before he does so you can see his face is unmarked);
- there is no blood above the plastic at first, but when Berlusconi emerges from his car there is a new smear of blood under his eye;
- his bodyguards spend some time obscuring our view while they apply the makeup in the car (and one may have a can of some spray-on substance);
- the makeup appears as caked and dried blood, not what you would see as the result of a very recent attack.
The trickery worked - Berlusconi's personal popularity in Italy soared after the attack.