Fascist Italy

[RedRedRose]

(Similar to the French Revolution thread) I am looking for books and films covering the Italian fascist movement. All the way from the early squadristi movement through to the collapse of the RSI.

Biographies, repression, anti-fascism, foreign policy (Corfu incident, invasion of Abbyssinia, Spanish Civil War, WW2 etc etc), archeology, aesthetics, fascist theory, education, social policy, all welcome.

Books I've found useful
Dennis Mack Smith - Mussolini (considered the standard biography of Mussolini)
RJB Bosworth - Mussolini
John Gooch - Mussolini's War (very good account of the military build-up and collapse during the war)
Tom Behan - The Resistible Rise of Benito Mussolini (covers anti-fascist movement and partisans; mentioned in other threads)

Books/Authors I haven't read, but look promising
David I. Kertzer - The Pope and Mussolini
Ray Mosley - Mussolini: The Last 600 Days of IL Duce
Eden K McLean - Mussolini's Children (education and racism under Mussolini)
Christopher Duggan - Fascist Voices (disputes Mussolini was ever unpopular)
Simon Levis et al. - The Italian Executioners (persecution of Jews after 1938)
Ruth Ben-Ghiat (specialises on popularism and fascist cinema)
Maria Sophia Quine (eugenics and social policies)

Films I've found useful
1900 (1976) (I dislike this film, but it has a lot of background)
Amarcord (1973)
A Special Day (1977) (Excellent film)
Life is Beautiful (1997)

Films I haven't watched, but look promising
Rome, Open City (1945)
Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979)
The Conformist (1970)
Lion of the Desert (1980)
Vincere (2009)
Salo (1975)
Bad Poet (2020)
Malena (2000)
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970)
The Man Who Will Come (2009)
The Last Days of Mussolini (1974)
Mussolini and I (1985)
Unfair Competition (2001)
Everybody Go Home! (1960)

 

[Pickman's model]

The pike about D'Annunzio might be useful

 

[Sue]

It's definitely worth reading Christ Stopped at Eboli.

 

[danny la rouge]

Add the Periodic Table, Primo Levi.

 

[RedRedRose]

Awesome recommendations.

 

[Sue]

The Conformist.
The Assassination of Matteotti.

 

[Flavour]

Rome Open City is an amazing film but its not really about Italian Fascism, it's about the collapse of the Nazi German occupation, 2 years after the collapse of the RSI

 

[Flavour]

The Conformist.

Seconded -- this is essential viewing -- and a very stylish film too! (insert joke about italian fascists at least dressing well)

 

[Sue]

Rome Open City is an amazing film but its not really about Italian Fascism, it's about the collapse of the Nazi German occupation, 2 years after the collapse of the RSI

I reckon it counts (and it is a great film). I'd include the other two (Paisan and Germany, Year Zero) for good measure. (Worth watching the trilogy if the latter at least is a stretch but, y'know....)

 

[redsquirrel]

Echo the vote for The Conformist a truly brilliant film. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is definitely worth watching but while fascism is in the background it is more about the lives of the family and their inwardness (though that refusal to see what is happening on the wider scale is part of the reason for the rise of fascism)

 

[RedRedRose]

Just watched Miracle at St. Anna. Points of interest: 92nd Infantry (a racially segregated unit) contribution to the Italian campaign, Axis Sally, racist propaganda, the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre. That aside, its a mess of film that totally falls apart in the final third; clumsy exposition and does a disservice to the partisan movement.

 

[RedRedRose]

Rome Open City is an amazing film but its not really about Italian Fascism, it's about the collapse of the Nazi German occupation, 2 years after the collapse of the RSI

I'm not sure I follow. Fascist Italy (Kingdom of Italy) collapsed in July 1943 after the Grand Council of Fascism and the Italian King turned on Mussolini, prompted by the allies invading Sicily. As a Third Reich proxy, Mussolini reconstituted the RSI/Salo Republic regime in northern Italy, and this ran until April 1945.

 

[The39thStep]

Behan's book is a good read, it also covers the breakaway of the Communist Party from the Socialist Party

 

[rekil]

RJB Bosworth - Mussolini

See also Bosworth's Mussolini's Italy - Life Under The Dictatorship. Only one chapter on Libya and Ethiopia.

 

[Pickman's model]

Just watched Miracle at St. Anna. Points of interest: 92nd Infantry (a racially segregated unit) contribution to the Italian campaign, Axis Sally, racist propaganda, the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre. That aside, its a mess of film that totally falls apart in the final third; clumsy exposition and does a disservice to the partisan movement.

Have you read red years black years? Red years, black years: anarchist resistance to fascism in Italy

 

[RedRedRose]

Behan's book is a good read, it also covers the breakaway of the Communist Party from the Socialist Party

'The Resistible Rise of Benito Mussolini' is very good. I was expecting a very tendencious piece of writing, but it wasn't (totally) the case.

 

[The39thStep]

'The Resistible Rise of Benito Mussolini' is very good. I was expecting a very tendencious piece of writing, but it wasn't (totally) the case.

Yes, I saw him speak a few times at the SWPs Marxism. Always well balanced IMO . Spoke to him a few times after talks. Funnily enough, his family lived in the same area as I did when I was a child . turned out I was at the same primary school and at the same time as his brother

 

[RedRedRose]

He also managed to write about the mafia and a semi-bio on Giuseppe Impastato, which looks interesting. It's a shame he passed away.

 

[Flavour]

I'm not sure I follow. Fascist Italy (Kingdom of Italy) collapsed in July 1943 after the Grand Council of Fascism and the Italian King turned on Mussolini, prompted by the allies invading Sicily. As a Third Reich proxy, Mussolini reconstituted the RSI/Salo Republic regime in northern Italy, and this ran until April 1945.

Mussolini's puppet state had little to no say over the Nazi occupation of Rome especially not during the battle between the nazis and allies in 1945, which is what the film is about

 

[RainbowTown]

Christ Stopped At Eboli, both the memoir by Carlo Levi and the fine film adaptation by Francesco Rosi are absolutely worth reading and watching. Exceptional works, both of them.

Pasolini's Salo - transferring de Sade's utterly depraved and repellent masterpiece to fascist Italy - is perhaps worth a view, but be warned. As an avid film buff of cinema - and world cinema in particular - it is without doubt the most amoral, cold and rebarbative film I've seen. It's the only movie that's left me feeling uneasy and slightly depressed that I viewed it in the first place. It was also Pasolini's final film. He was brutally murdered shortly after. A strange, sad and somewhat ironic end to one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th Century.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Pasolini's Salo - transferring de Sade's utterly depraved and repellent masterpiece to fascist Italy - is perhaps worth a view, but be warned. As an avid film buff of cinema - and world cinema in particular - it is without doubt the most amoral, cold and rebarbative film I've seen. It's the only movie that's left me feeling uneasy and slightly depressed that I viewed it in the first place. It was also Pasolini's final film. He was brutally murdered shortly after. A strange, sad and somewhat ironic end to one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th Century.

I saw that at the cinema many years ago. More than half the audience left before the end. We stuck it out. Probably the most horrible film I've ever seen.

 

[RainbowTown]

I saw that at the cinema many years ago. More than half the audience left before the end. We stuck it out. Probably the most horrible film I've ever seen.

It's not for the faint hearted, to be sure. The matter of fact coldness of it's narrative, bordering on the banal even, makes the brutality of what is unfolding even more shocking and difficult to digest. Chilling almost.

 

[not-bono-ever]

If you have a day to spare, then Bertoluccis 1900 does run the the fascist side of the game and the taking of sides. It’s a big un tho’ and doesn’t half go on a bit. ETA , it’s in your list!

 

[RedRedRose]

Add the Periodic Table, Primo Levi.

Excellent read. Offers a lot of facets on the period.

 

[bcuster]

A century after Mussolini seized power, Giorgia Meloni looks to steer Italy back toward nationalism

Almost exactly 100 years after Benito Mussolini staged his “March on Rome” mass demonstration, during which his National Fascist Party seized power, Italy appears likely to hand control of its government to Giorgia Meloni, another leader of the nationalist right.

www.yahoo.com

 

[RedRedRose]

Kertzer also seems to have released another book on the relationship between fascism and the church in The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler
And John Foot Blood and Power was released this month to much fanfare.

 

[Sue]

I've just started reading Trieste by Dasa Drndic, a novel about an Italian-Jewish family in WW2. Good so far.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/books/review/trieste-by-dasa-drndic.amp.html

 

[bcuster]

 

[Gramsci]

I posted this on Prime film thread a while back about DJango Kill

Post in thread 'Amazon Prime streaming video recommendations thread' Amazon Prime streaming video recommendations thread

Italian Spaghetti westerns often made references to recent Italian history.

Article here from the Spaghetti Western excellent website:

Spaghetti Westerns and Politics - The Spaghetti Western Database

www.spaghetti-western.net

 

[Flavour]

we'll be back there tomorrow