Visconti and TRP

LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU
Sun Nov 24 16:46:01 CST 1996


Paul writes:
"The equation of fascist sympathies and homosexuality is nothing new;
certainly, Kesey and TRP didn't invent it. Have a look at Bertolucci's _The
Conformist_ some time. (I've never seen Visconti's _The Damned_, but I've
heard it spoken of in the same context as Conformist)."

Bertolucci even said in one interview about THE CONFORMIST something like
"All fascists are homosexuals."

Visconti is an interesting case.  There are some interesting parallels with
Blicero and even Gretta in the story of the rise of the young scion of a
Krupp-like family in the Nazi hierarchy (Helmut Berger).  He dresses up
like Marlene 
Dietrich and kills children, among other things.  The film also centers on
The Night of the Long Knives, when Hitler purged the SA (Brownshirts), led
by Ernst Rohm, who at the time his main rival and a homosexual.  (Part of
the purpose of the Nuremburg party rally chronicled in TRIUMPH OF THE WILL
was to smooth over this intra-party coup.)

Then there was Visconti's film about Ludwig, the mad king of Bavaria.
As we will see, there "was something in the air" about Ludwig not only in
Nazi days but around the time that GR was published.  The film's release 
date (1973) means that (in time as we know it) there could have been no
*direct* influence on GR but . . . 


Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)



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