Mark Cousins’ calm matter-of-fact narration doesn’t impose parallels between Italian fascist propaganda of the 1920s and today’s modern fascist propaganda but instead allows the obvious parallels to speak for themselves. Like Claude Lanzmann, Cousins damns fascists—Trump, Bolsonaro, Le Pen, and the UK’s transphobic movement—by showing the words they have actually said. There’s more than a little liberal equivocation and naïvety in asking what should be done with relics of fascist heritage but the methodical close reading of films like A NOI! (1922, dir. Umberto Paradisi) drew me in as a great example of reading politics from cinema.
Full review available on Cinetopia podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cinetopia/episodes/March-2023-on-EHFM-Glasgow-Film-Festival-special--Berwick-Film-and-Media-Arts-Festival--Save-Filmhouse-campaign-e216c49