Apropos of this week's screening of "The Siege of the Alcazar" (1940)

but its almost a cliche' to note that the salient single factor that seems to unite all the 20th century's "A-List" tyrants is a manic obsession with...movies. You name em' Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Franco, Mao...all had a imbedded notion that movies could "form opinions" in the audience's collective mind thus encouraging certain desired behaviors and deterring undesirable activities. Propaganda as defined by Jacques Ellul is a species of cost effective police supervision based on a sound theory that if the flow of facts & news to the masses is thoroughly controlled, then attitude formation can be achieved thru an atmosphere of exclusivity. The one thing that unites, all the Marxists, Fascists & Nationalists cited above is a common sociological notion of the masses as uncritical "Receivers"of state sponsored propaganda. This is pretty much Jacques Ellul's formulation but it has a hidden flaw only regimes at the height of their powers can make successful propaganda, declining regimes wracked by economic issues & foreign policy disasters can never make useful propaganda, the tide of factuality has "come in" so to speak and is washing them away. And so in the mid 20th Century the newest shiniest art form was cinema, Lenin, Hitler Stalin (the latter two watched a film every day when they could) all of them were wild about movies and also absolutely convinced that thru movies, were the masses ruled. Hitler put Leni Riefenstahl on the map, Stalin was so taken with the movies that he laid down a patently insane decree after World War Two that "All" Soviet Films must be "Epic in scope". Mao Zedong wrote unsigned movie criticism for the "People's Daily"that succeeded in getting a classic film called "The Life of Wu Xun (1950)banned for thirty five years & Mussolini rebuilt Italy's film plant while his appalling son Vittorio acted as patron to a gaggle of future Italian Neorealist filmmakers. There is a funny thing about tyrants, they demand orthodoxy, and complete obedience but they are also willing to sponsor stylistic innovations in cinema, Eisenstein, Riefenstahl and Vittorio Mussolini's pet neorealist. As I said, "obsessed" in all these despots there is more than a little "thwarted movie producer" present. "The Siege of the Alcazar"(1940) is therefore political hype work, Mussolini wanted war, only by choosing the right side in a General European War could he hope to grab off millions of square miles in North African Colonies at the Conference Table. That was his real goal in 1940, control of the Mediterranean freedom from the guns of the Royal Navy, both huge gambles, sufficient even to make the most cowed populace quail. The solution was simple, crank up the grievance machine, hype Italy's status as an underdog in Europe and build up the Marxist menace. All this was vitally necessary as the Italian Masses were completely war weary from a campaign of "pacification" in Libya, to the conquest of Ethiopia down to their intervention in support of Franco in Spain. In 1940 Italy was already militarily spent even before the war declarations, situations like this cry out for the intervention of propaganda...hence our next film. So please tell your friends, as once again Channel Zero has gone to a very obscure film title for what we think are very sound reasons. “The Siege of the Alcazar” (1940) Directed by Augusto Genina The Somerville Theatre (micro cinema) Friday February 23rd
 8pm (sharp!)
 55 Davis Square Somerville Ma
 617 625 5700
 Admission: $7.50 (cash only, tickets on sale thirty minutes before showtime in front of the MicroCinema)