The Roaring Years (1962)

 "I'm teetotal, but I'll take a sip..."

This is, perhaps, a timely film to watch now that the current government of Italy, led by Giorgia Meloni, are literal fascists. It is sadly necessary to remind ourselves that such things, and such politicians, must not be tolerated. And satirical humour is a perfect way to do this. The fascist, after all, has no sense of humour. How else could they march around in such ridiculous ways?

We begin with footage of Mussolini, followed by a Nuremberg rally. It is 1937; Italian fascism is at its height. there then follows a farce, based on Gogol's "The Government Inspector", in which the notables of the town all mistakenly assume that a young, enthusiastically Fascist insurance salesman is an incognito inspector. The farce works perfectly, both as light comedy and a deeper, more excoriating examination of the kind of man who ends up in positions of authority in societies like this- corrupt, pathetic, with not one ounce of integrity or public spirit.

Nino Manfredi's... protagonist (a Fascist cannot be a hero, however honest) learns some hard truths about human nature, and perhaps there's hope for him: in the final scenes, he gives up the vice of teetotalism. Perhaps there's hope for him yet. And what drives him to this is the reality of the horrors of poverty while corrupt officials live it up. Alas, his honesty loses him the girl. She's not worth it. One must demand moral integrity in a life partner.

Made just seventeen years since the errant Duce was strung up on that lamp post, this film would have hit close to the bone. It depicts many of the absurdities of the era, not least the bachelor tax, or the October 28th tradition of commemorating the march on Rome by locking up dissidents for a day or two... while being really apologetic, civilised, and ensuring said dissidents were well supplied with good food and good wine. 

The Conformist (1970)

"I want to see how a dictatorship falls.”

I’ve always hated unthinking confirmity so, as you can imagine, I found this film rather satisfying. It may be adapted from a novel I don’t know, but it’s rare to find a film that feels so much like literary fiction in its treatment of theme and inferiority, an impressive achievement when one must use visuals and acting as a substitute to being privy to characters’ thoughts.

Marcello Clerici is cold, reserved, not given to easy display of feeling, perhaps because of sexual abuse in his youth, and self-conscious about this, as well as secretly not being quite unambiguously heterosexual. But this very self-consciousness makes him anxious to fit in, to be “normal”, an attitude he shares with his blond friend Italo.

So he conforms. Even his marriage to Giulia, while he sees as rather simple and with whom he has no real connection as a person, is done so he can appear normal. The trouble is, of course, that confirmity can be a particularly terrible thing if you happen to live in an oppressive society such as, say, Fascist Italy in 1938, and the film centres on a moral dilemma; will Marcello get his hands dirty by assassinating an old anti-Fascist professor? In the end he does, of course, and he conforms to Fascism and tyranny in all of its openly evil aspects.

His relationship with Anna is interesting, too. The professor’s wife, yet also attracted to both Marcello and the innocently oblivious Giulia, she seems to offer her body as a peace offering to Marcello in a doomed attempt to stave off the inevitable. Yet she is attracted to the man she hates, accepting sex and comfort from him even as she confronts him with human rights abuses under Mussolini.

And yet, five years later, as Mussolini’s regime falls, Marcello is able to conform once more without a qualm, denouncing his former Fascist beliefs and even his old friend Italo, no doubt set to thrive in the new democratic Italy. Such conformists surround us, their potential for evil often latent, but they are monsters. This is a fine film.