It's the second episode in our series about fascism and Italian filmmakers. This time, we watched Bernardo Bertolucci's THE CONFORMIST. We discussed the fascist desire for "normalcy" and the fascist's urge to supress their sexuality. Discussion also includes:

• Tallahassee Film Fest;
• Ecuadorian AG attempts to blame leftists for a cartel assassination;
• Terrible A.I. in ALIEN: ROMULUS; and
• Why does Nic Cage look like Miss Piggy in the new horror film LONGLEGS?

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Sources and Links

• Escape from Freedom (1941) by Erich Fromm
• Gramsci, Antonio. (1921) “The Two Fascisms” https://www.marxists.org/archive/gramsci/1921/08/two_fascisms.htm
• Italian Fascism: Its Origins and Development (1982) by Alexander J. De Grande
• Fascism, Vulnerability, and the Escape from Freedom: Readings to Repair Democracy (2022) by C. Jon Delogu
• The Anatomy of Fascism (2004) by Robert Paxton
• McLaughlin, Neil. 1996. “Nazism, Nationalism, and the Sociology of Emotions: Escape from Freedom Revisited” in Sociological Theory 14(3): 241-261.
• https://www.intercept.com.br/2024/08/29/ecuador-us-backed-prosecutor-attacks-left/

We begin a new three episode series on Italian filmmakers and their depictions of fascism. We start with Luchino Visconti's 1969 film THE DAMNED about an industrialist German family and the depravity they engage in as they navigate a working relationship with the ascendant Third Reich. Discussion also includes:

• Homosexuality during the rise of the Nazis;
• The United Auto Workers who are suing Trump and Elon;
• Alachua County's efforts to divest from corporate interests;
• The Alien franchise and why it's great.

Follow us online!

• Follow us on Twitter at @RedRoseFilmPod
• Follow our Facebook Group
• Follow Hal on Twitter at @shestructured
• Follow Craig on Twitter at @KegFreighter
• Follow Hal's Letterboxd
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Sources and Links

• Robert Beachy’s 2010 article “The German Invention of Homosexuality” in the Journal of Modern History
• Samuel Clowes Huneke’s 2019 article “Death Wish: Suicide and Stereotype in the Gay Discourses of Imperial and Weimar Germany” in New German Critique
• Susan Sontag’s 1989s chapter “Fascinating Fascism” from Under the Sign of Saturn
• Erich Fromm’s 1964 article “Creators and Destroyers” in The Saturday Review
• Eleanor Hancock’s 1998 article “'Only the Real, the True, the Masculine Held Its Value": Ernst Rohm, Masculinity, and Male Homosexuality” in Journal of the History of Sexuality.
• https://uaw.org/uaw-files-federal-labor-charges-against-donald-trump-and-elon-musk-for-attempting-to-intimidate-and-threaten-workers/

For our final episode discussing films about Ernest "Che" Guevara, we watched Walter Salles 2004 film The Motorcycle Diaries, an acount of Guevara's eye-opening journey through South America that inspired the revolutionary ideals Che would soon bring to all of Latin America. Also:

• Other recent watches: Love Lies Bleeding (2024), Dune II (2024), Bones and All (2022), Jodorowsky's Dune (2013), and RATS! (2024);
• Packing the supreme court;
• Craig celebrates a personal achievement!
• Vanguardism and its importance to a revolution.

Follow us online!

• Follow us on Twitter at @RedRoseFilmPod
• Follow our Facebook Group
• Follow Hal on Twitter at @shestructured
• Follow Craig on Twitter at @KegFreighter
• Follow Hal's Letterboxd
• Follow Craig's Letterboxd

Sources & Links

• A Revolutionary Life by John Lee Anderson
• The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Guevara
• https://amp.theguardian.com/film/2004/aug/26/features
• https://thefilmstage.com/claire-denis-ryusuke-hamaguchi-kiyoshi-kurosawa-christian-petzold-apichatpong-weerasethakul-more-sign-demand-for-ceasefire-in-gaza/