Tag Archive: Fascism
Part of an irregular series of bite-sized posts about 7″ singles I own – shameless nostalgia from the days of vinyl. (Search ‘Backtracking’ to collect the set!)
Heaven 17 – (We don’t need this) Fascist Groove Thang b/w The Decline of the West (Virgin Records, 1981)
“Have you heard it on the news about this fascist groove thang – evil men with racist views spreading all across this land”
Heaven 17 - we mean it maaaaaan!
History has a nasty habit of repeating itself. Apologists for fascism and genocide may be asserting the right to free speech but their comments need to be vilified in the strongest possible terms.
Danish film director Lars (“I am a Nazi”) Von Trier claims he was only joking during the press conference at Cannes Film Festival when he said that he sympathises with Adolf Hitler.
He admits that Hitler “did some wrong things” and was “not a good guy”; banalities that must go down as the sickest and most misguided understatements of the year.
What Von Trier was really doing was to seek some cheap publicity to grab the headlines; he has achieved this but probably not in the way he envisaged. Who knows what was going through his head to make such crass remarks.
Some folks have come to his defence and argue that Jews should lighten up, but these were not comments against one race but against the human race.
I therefore dedicate today’s ‘Backtrack’ to Von Trier and would draw his attention to the lines “Hitler proves that funky stuff is not for you and me girl”. Continue reading
“Anything that can be done to a rat can be done to a human being. And we can do most anything to rats. This is a hard thing to think about, but it’s the truth. It won’t go away because we cover our eyes” – Bruce Sterling .
Sterling was writing about Cyberpunk in the Nineties but this quote came back to me after the grueling experience of watching Pier Paolo Pasolini’s final film : Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma) which was made in 1975.
Sterling was explaining the reason for strong imagery in Sci-Fi novels; Pasolini’s movie is no futuristic fantasy but an aspect of the modern world we’d all prefer was a fiction.
The film is a powerful and uncompromising polemic exposing the depths of degradation human beings are capable of and Pasolini’s own brutal murder before its release ironically served to confirm this.
The British Board of Film classification says it “contains strong violence, sexual violence and scenes of torture and degradation”, but even this strong warning seems an understatement.
The movie transposes the Marquis de Sade’s eighteenth century novel, 120 Days of Sodom, to Mussolini’s fascist republic of Salò on Lake Garda at the end of World War Two.
The setting and events are exaggerated for dramatic effect but the film draws its inspiration from well-documented Fascist crimes against humanity.
The horrific scenes so graphically depicted are also examples of the commonplace cruelties and abuse of power that are not confined to fascism.
The movie shows a systematic programme of rape, torture, mutilation and humiliation of 16 young victims (8 male, 8 female).
Their suffering is made more ‘entertaining’ for the sadistic protagonists by a ritualised series of gruesome initiation ceremonies including being forced to eat excrement, put on dog leads and fed scraps of food. As with hardcore pornography, the sexual acts are reduced to the level of detached, emotionless mechanical bodily functions.
It is undoubtedly a courageous and unique movie but ultimately the crudeness of the allegory and the extremity of the images just left me feeling sickened.
Related Articles
- Distant Relatives: Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom and Dogtooth (thefilmexperience.net)
- Banning Salo again would be culturally backward The Sydney Morning Herald
Una Giornata Particolare (A Special Day ) directed by Ettore Scola (1977).
This beautiful film is set in Rome on May 8, 1939, the day Mussolini first met Hitler.
It opens with extended documentary footage of this infamous occasion. The adoring crowds waving swastika flags is a sobering reminder of the mass support these despicable leaders commanded.
Sophia Loren plays Antonietta who is left alone in her tenement flat when her fascist husband and tribe of six children leave to attend the celebratory rally.
While cleaning, the family’s pet minor bird escapes through the window and lands on the stairwell near the window of the flat directly opposite. This is next to the home of Gabriele (Marcello Mastroianni). In retrieving the bird the two strike up a friendship through a mutual attraction and recognition of their lonely lives.
The symbolism of the bird briefly escaping its cage soon becomes apparent. Continue reading
Perhaps unwittingly, but then again perhaps not, Bologna University are guilty of backing Silvio Berlusconi’s dumbed down and sexed-up representation of Italy in the 21st Century.
In the new poster campaign for the Polo di Romagna the fou
r branches of the University in this region – Ravenna, Forlì, Rimini and Cesena – are represented by four sexy Caucasian super-heroines – two blondes, two brunettes. ‘Le Fantastiche 4’ are personifications of Berlusconi’s new Italy and a marked contrast to The United Colors of Benetton branding of mixed race harmony.
Herr B has shamelessly declared that Italy is not a multi-ethnic nation – a move motivated by the desire to label foreigners as enemies of the state and destroyers of liberty.
I’m a ‘straniero’ here myself but since I’m white and English that apparently doesn’t count. Africans and Eastern Europeans get a rawer deal. Instead of embracing diversity and looking for ways of implementing a humane policy of immigration the right wing Freedom Party (sic) is bent on delivering sound bites that kow-tow to Fascists and bigots.
On top of this, the recent exposure of Berlusconi’s harem furthers the principle that beddable babes trump women with brains.
To use sex so blatantly to market higher education is indefensible at any time, but is particularly misguided at a time when the sordid details of Berlusconi’s private life expose the rampant chauvinistic culture at the heart of his government.
