Cinema of the Dam'd responds to the recent triumph of right-wing parties and regressive politics in the italian elections with four nights of proudly anti-fascist Italian cinema.We conclude our program with Lina Wertmüller’s brilliant black comedy Love and Anarchy. The feature will be followed by a program of our favorite Italian music videos.

Nobody knows how many attempts on Mussolini’s life were planned during his rule, nor how many failed because their aim tragically exceeded their capabilities. Lina Wertmüller’s Love and Anarchy is an hilariously coarse and brash attempt to portray how even the purest ideals of anti-fascist resistance could not overcome the human limitations of his would-be assassins. Here the aspiring assassin is Tunin (Giancarlo Giannini), a farmer from Northern Italy who travels to Rome to murder Mussolini and avenge the death of an anarchist friend. In Rome he meets Salomé, a sex worker and anarchist, who makes him stay at her brothel, posing as a relative while she assists with his plan. Thanks to great performances by Wertmüller regulars Giannini and Melato, Love and Anarchy strikes an incredible balance between comedy and tragedy, and leaves us with one of the best accounts of the proud yet confused resistance pushing against the apparent discipline of fascist Italy. The movie has been rarely screened outside Italy. Watch the trailer.

Directed by Lina Wertmüller, 1973, Italy, 120 mins. In Italian with English subtitles.

Bar opens at 19:00
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