The Unmaking of Fascist Aesthetics PDF
Preview The Unmaking of Fascist Aesthetics
THE U N M A K I NG OF FASCIST A E S T H E T I CS This page intentionally left blank University of Minnesota Press / Minneapolis London THE U N M A K I NG OF FASCIST A E S T H E T I CS Kriss Ravetto Copyright 2001 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ravetto, Kriss. The unmaking of fascist aesthetics / Kriss Ravetto. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index. ISBN 0-8166-3742-3 — ISBN 0-8166-3743-1 (pbk.) 1. Motion pictures—Political aspects. 2. Fascism and motion pictures. I. Title. PN1995.9.P6R38 2001 791.43'658—dc21 2001003521 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 1. Between Remembering and Surviving 21 2. Feminizing Fascism 53 3. Said: A Fatal Strategy 97 4. Mixing Memory with Desire 149 5. Fammi campa-. Survival without Omerta 187 Conclusion 227 Notes 235 Bibliography 269 Index 285 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments This study is a product of multiple interactions—between me, the films and the critical thinking that have inspired this work, and the great number of friends and colleagues who have generously offered their time, encouragement, and criticism. First, I want to acknowledge my deep respect for the intellectual rigor and aesthetic acumen of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Liliana Cavani, and Lina Wertmtiller. I also wish to profess my enduring appreciation for my friends and mentors whose guidance and criticism were invaluable. Thanks to Lucia Re, Sande Cohen, Mario Biagioli, Sam Weber, and Margie Waller for engaging my thinking thoroughly, commenting on the various versions of the manuscript, and providing me with a model of scholarly excel- lence. Special thanks to Randy Rutsky, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Teshome Gabriel, Peter Wollen, and Geoffrey Nowell-Smith for reading the book in manuscript and provid- ing stimulating remarks. I'm very grateful to the readers' reports from the University of Minnesota Press for their attentive and extremely helpful commentaries. I also want to thank Beatrice Lewin-Dumin, whose careful reading greatly helped me to revise the manuscript. Thanks to Doug Armato for his astute suggestions and for seeing this project through to the end. My research was markedly facilitated by the generosity of various archives and institutions: in Rome, Cineteca Nazionale, Istituto Luce, l'Archivio di Stato, and Biblioteca Nazionale; in New York, MOMA's Film Archive and the New York Public Library; in Los Angeles, the Getty Center Archive, UCLA Film Archive, and the Academy of Motion Pictures Archive. Finally, I am indebted to my family, including all of my dearest friends, for their love and support. This book is dedicated to the memory of my father. VII This page intentionally left blank Introduction I was made for love That is my universe I can't help it It is my nature Love's always been my game Play it how I may Men cluster to me Like moths around a flame, And if their wings burn, I know I'm not to blame1 —sung by Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel How could nazism, which was represented by lamentable, shabby, puritan young men; by a species of Victorian spinsters, have become everywhere today ... in all the pornographic literature of the world, the absolute reference to eroticism? All the shoddiest aspects of the erotic imagination are now put under the sign of nazism.2 —Michel Foucault At the end of the twentieth century, numerous attempts to "settle accounts," "come to terms with," and "work through" fascism, nazism, and the "Final Solution" have garnered public attention throughout both the Western media and the West's high academic circles. For example, recent political and scholarly discourses have demanded that the nations and peoples who fostered and supported fascism acknowledge their 1
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