Italy revisits Mussolini's fascist legacy

[Strengthandhonour]

Reconsidering Mussolini

More than six decades after the death of Il Duce, a slew of new movies and memorabilia are prompting Italians to take a closer look at their nation’s Fascist past.

By Barbie Nadeau
Newsweek
Updated: 7:04 p.m. ET April 27, 2007

April 27, 2007 - The Villa Torlonia is one of Rome’s last existing examples of 17th-century grandeur. But when city authorities recently unveiled its main palazzo after a $6 million restoration, the result was anything but majestic. The 20th-century interior is ostentatious, the chandeliers gaudy and the frescoes grandiose. The reason for the jarring décor: to showcase the lifestyle of its last Italian resident, former dictator Benito Mussolini.
Mussolini lived in the Villa Torlonia with his wife, Rachele, and their children from 1925 to 1943. And while the decision to restore it in the image of a pro-Nazi Fascist may seem an odd choice to outsiders, it reflects a growing fascination among Italians with Il Duce. A spate of Mussolini-themed movies and documentaries are in the works; visitors are snapping up clothes and flags with Fascist insignias from the Villa Mussolini Museum at the seaside village of Riccione, where the family kept a summer home. Additional souvenir stores and museums are opening in his old haunts along Italy’s northern coast—their offerings include DVDs of some of Mussolini’s most famous speeches from the his balcony on Piazza Venezia. In his hometown of Predappio, where 400 volunteers have long taken turns standing as honor guards at his tomb, the number of black-shirted Fascist sympathizers who turned out to celebrate the anniversary of Mussolini’s March on Rome rose as high as 6,000 last October.
Italians don’t necessarily see this as the glorification of a tyrant. Instead, they see it as a way to confront—and perhaps come to terms with—their complicated past. Historically, Italy has glossed over Mussolini’s excesses. School textbooks offer a truncated version of World War II, and the public stereotype of Mussolini is that he was the man who made the trains run on time. “Italians are now taking a more detached, perhaps less hostile, look at dark periods of their recent history,” says Giancarlo Leone of RAI Cinema, which is coproducing “Vincere,” one of the new films. “These were previously, more or less subconsciously, being avoided.”
Movies like "Vincere" may indeed offer a more nuanced view of the Fascist era. "Crazy Blood," starring Monica Bellucci, presents a sympathetic depiction of Luisa Ferida, the pregnant actress shot by partisans for her Fascist ties in 1945. Another movie, "Il Sangue dei Vinti" ("The Blood of the Losers"), outlines alleged atrocities by anti-Fascist partisans against the Fascist regime. By contrast, Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio's "Vincere" ("To Win") offers a harsher look at Mussolini the man. The movie, due out next year, chronicles the life of Il Duce’s illegitimate son, Benito Albino Mussolini, who died at 27 after being tortured and apparently poisoned. The young man's mother, Ida Dalser, was also repeatedly harassed and hidden by the Fascist regime until she, too, died in mysterious circumstances. "This is a tragic story of a mother and a son, confined and dying in mental asylums," Bellocchio said when he announced the plans for the film. "It is a true Italian tragedy—a largely unknown story which will cause plenty of discussion."
Political perceptions of Italy’s Fascist era may be shifting too. Last year, 200,000 soldiers who served as volunteers protecting Mussolini were given the same status and veterans’ benefits as former resistance fighters. The move angered many Italians, but then former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose center-right coalition included the extreme-right political party of the dictator's granddaughter, Alessandra Mussolini, called it a contribution to national reconciliation. In addition, an Italian court in Como is even considering opening an inquiry into whether it was really an Italian communist partisan who shot the Fascist dictator on April 28, 1945—and whether the killing was legal.
Indeed, the Villa Torlonia seems to reflect a concerted effort not to present too sanitized—or jingoistic—a view of the past. “A true democracy has no need to discard a part of its history,” said Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni when the palazzo was reopened to the public. Visitors to the villa can see some of the grim reminders of war, like Mussolini’s air-raid shelter and escape tunnels, carved out of the remains of the ancient Jewish catacombs under the house. Not far from his old bed, an art exhibition displays World War II scenes of devastation alongside G.I. posters left over from when the American and British soldiers used the villa as Allied High Command from 1944 to 1947. "The Italians are not free from their Fascist past,” says Gianni Clerici, author of the new book "Mussolini, L'ultima Notte" ("Mussolini's Last Night"), “because they have not yet processed it." The question now is whether revisiting the Il Duce era may the first step on that road to liberation.

source: Italians Revisit Mussolini\'s Fascist Legacy - Newsweek: World News - MSNBC.com

[Kernunnos]

I don't see any fascist revival, only the usual half-clandestine business of selling fascist memorabilia (ever a strong business since the end of the war).


In Predappio, Mussolini's birthplace, the local authorities (communists since 1945) have been gladly tolerating a steady pilgrimage of nostalgics for at least twenty years.

It is a very good business opportunity ..
As of the rest of Italy, there are almost everywhere locals attended by nostalgics or restaurant offering "spaghetti alla Mussolini" and "vino del Duce".

Not many but undisturbed.

On many motorways, gas station bars offer often nostalgic (and very tacky) items, as long as you don't visit red regions like Tuscany.

In mine it is not uncommon to see such shops.

In Liguria, red region, I saw a shop offering vines with fascist imagery on etiquettes being sold alongside the same kind of bottles carrying Che Guevara inspired ones: they were made by the same firm ...

In fact, the Mussolini's calendar on sale at my favourite newsstand is produced alongside a Che Guevara calendar, still by the same firm (I suspect it is the same firm as the one of the ligurian wines).

The newsstand owner told me that he could sell only the Mussolini's copies, the Che Guevaras remained unsold (happy glee).

This is far from a new thing.

When I was a child in the late sixties and seventies one could find Mussolini's keyrings and similar reproduction items with ease, even pro nazi books could be found off the mainstream book circuits.

[Strengthandhonour]

A Dutch contact of mine once visited Italy for vacation.
He told me he was shocked when he visited Sicily. He saw the fascist memorabilia just about everywhere. wines,stickers,shirts,etc,
He said he was highly amused at the high number of cars and houses with forza nuova stickers.

[Sergius]

I remember when I first visited Italy a handful of years ago, I was shocked to find Il Duce and Adolf Hitler wines in a gas station. This was in Lombardia, I think.

[Lucas Corso]

Originally Posted by Breha

In Liguria, red region, I saw a shop offering vines with fascist imagery on etiquettes being sold alongside the same kind of bottles carrying Che Guevara inspired ones: they were made by the same firm ...

In fact, the Mussolini's calendar on sale at my favourite newsstand is produced alongside a Che Guevara calendar, still by the same firm (I suspect it is the same firm as the one of the ligurian wines).

The newsstand owner told me that he could sell only the Mussolini's copies, the Che Guevaras remained unsold (happy glee).

I agree, in the wine shop near my home you can find bottles of wine with the following portraits over the label: Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Kaiser Franz Josef, Che Guevara, Stalin

[Sergius]

It's peculiar. A bit northern and such a thing would cause a public outrage. Is using Hitler's portrait on a commercial product even legal in Germany?

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Ljubomir

It's peculiar. A bit northern and such a thing would cause a public outrage.

It tells you of a difference between Northern and Southern Europe.. and between Southern Europe and the "deep South" too.

It appears to me that in Northern Europe the mentality is to have everything to the smallest detail strictly regulated by rules/laws, and that these rules/laws must be enforced to the last comma, for society to work.

I'm not sure how it goes in the "deep North".

In Southern Europe this is more relaxed and much is left to the "good judgment" of the individual as part of some established non-written social norms, mixed with some degree of common sense.

In the "deep South", however, an enforcing similar to that in Northern Europe should be necessary as things tend to go out of hand.


Of course this is all a bit vague and I don't claim it to be exact. But it is a thought from what I have been able to observe.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Strengthandhonour

A Dutch contact of mine once visited Italy for vacation.
He told me he was shocked when he visited Sicily. He saw the fascist memorabilia just about everywhere. wines,stickers,shirts,etc,
He said he was highly amused at the high number of cars and houses with forza nuova stickers.

Much ado about nothing. What is it call in Italian? Fanfare?

I've seen that some people would like to believe that Forza Nuova is becoming a force to deal with in Italy. I would prevent people against dellusions..

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Strengthandhonour

A Dutch contact of mine once visited Italy for vacation.
He told me he was shocked when he visited Sicily. He saw the fascist memorabilia just about everywhere. wines,stickers,shirts,etc,
He said he was highly amused at the high number of cars and houses with forza nuova stickers.

I thought the Fascists were more popular in the north and were unpopular in the south when they were in power.

Originally Posted by Mynydd

It tells you of a difference between Northern and Southern Europe.. and between Southern Europe and the "deep South" too.

It appears to me that in Northern Europe the mentality is to have everything to the smallest detail strictly regulated by rules/laws, and that these rules/laws must be enforced to the last comma, for society to work.

I'm not sure how it goes in the "deep North".

In Southern Europe this is more relaxed and much is left to the "good judgment" of the individual as part of some established non-written social norms, mixed with some degree of common sense.

That would be the rule in the Far West of Europe as well. Ireland is not a nation for playing strictly by the rule book. I remember a funny family story from the days of WW2. I relative of mine was traveling across country by car and had run out of petrol and had no more petrol ration stamps. He went to the nearest village pub and asked where he could buy petrol with cash. The bartender told him to speak to the local policeman who was sitting, in uniform, in the pub. My great-uncle was told by the policeman to take his car to the petrol pump and tell the man working there it had been arranged. The man working the pump refused to trust a stranger's word so my great-uncle had to return to the pub and ask the policeman to come speak to the station owner. The policeman got up from his chair, put his cap on and said "that's the trouble with Ireland, no respect for authority, no respect for the law."

[Strengthandhonour]

Well, I am not very sure about their popularity in the north but I know how it worked in the south. A lot of the people in the south were poor so they were more than willing to listen to il duce. Today in areas like Calabria and Puglia, some parties have a nice chunk of support(For example, last regional elections, in Calabria the forza nuova recieved more than half of the votes)
Mussolini's wife was from Napoli, so she always found ways to get him to invest towards the south,therefore,making many southeners very thankful towards Mussolini.
Of course when the war came up it's a different story..sides were taken.
But mynydd is right, Forza Nuova isn't as popular as some people might make it seem unfortunately. Most of the ones who end up amused by the Forza Nuova "effect" are usually northern European tourists who are not used to seeing such political expression back home.

[Menydh]

I should point that, although I made that comment about Forza Nuova, that doesn't mean that there is nothing of interest in Italy.

On the contrary, there is much of interest. I would point more in the direction of Fiamma Tricolore and groups around it.

[Kernunnos]

Originally Posted by Ljubomir

It's peculiar. A bit northern and such a thing would cause a public outrage. Is using Hitler's portrait on a commercial product even legal in Germany?

In Italy everything that is strictly forbidden is likely tolerated and vice versa.

Since imperial times law has been often an half empty shell.

Catholicism with his idea of pardon after repenting has been influencing strongly this lack of efficacy of law.

[Crvena zvezda]

Originally Posted by Errigal

I thought the Fascists were more popular in the north and were unpopular in the south when they were in power.



That would be the rule in the Far West of Europe as well. Ireland is not a nation for playing strictly by the rule book. I remember a funny family story from the days of WW2. I relative of mine was traveling across country by car and had run out of petrol and had no more petrol ration stamps. He went to the nearest village pub and asked where he could buy petrol with cash. The bartender told him to speak to the local policeman who was sitting, in uniform, in the pub. My great-uncle was told by the policeman to take his car to the petrol pump and tell the man working there it had been arranged. The man working the pump refused to trust a stranger's word so my great-uncle had to return to the pub and ask the policeman to come speak to the station owner. The policeman got up from his chair, put his cap on and said "that's the trouble with Ireland, no respect for authority, no respect for the law."

I have a similar story. When I was in Montenegro I remember seeing a cop stealing gas/siphoning off gas from another car.