The Imaginary Reich. Construction of the Mythology of Nazism in La Caduta degli Dei and Il Portiere di Notte
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##
Abstract
We deal with the process by which in the West of the 1960s and 1970s a mythology of Nazism began to be built that dissociated it from historical fact and mnemonic discourse, thus allowing it to become a habitual inspiration and source of all kinds of fictional works. We do it through an in-depth analysis of two films, La Caduta degli Dei (Visconti, 1969) and Il Portiere di Notte (Cavani, 1974), very representative of the sadiconazista phenomenon of Italian cinema, which caused great controversy in its time but, undoubtedly, contributed to the opening of frames necessary for the entry into the public space of atypical and disruptive forms of representation of the past. We defend the interpretation that this process consisted in giving the constitutive elements of the imaginary about National Socialism an archetypal and metaphorical value.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
nazism, cinema, historical culture, sadiconazista, representations
ARENDT, Hannah, Eichmann en Jerusalén. Un estudio acerca de la banalidad del mal, Lumen, Barcelona, 2003 [1963].
BARBRY, François-Régis, «Portier de nuit. Liliana Cavani sur Fond de Barbarie», Cinéma, n. 444, p. 29.
BELLAVITA, Andrea, «Martin e Konrad: figli senza padri. Una lettura psicoanalitica di ‘La caduta degli dei’ e ‘Gruppo di famiglia in un interno’», en DE GRASSI, Massimo, Visconti oggi: il valore di un eredità artistica, EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, Trieste, 2020, pp. 117-126.
BELPOLITI, Marco, Primo Levi. Conversazioni e interviste (1963-1987), Einaudi, Turín, 2016.
BENCIVENNI, Alessandro, Luchino Visconti, La Nuova Italia, Florencia, 1982.
BORY, Jean-Louis, «Le carneval des spectres», Le Nouvel Observateur, n. 491, 8 de abril de 1974, p. 63.
BRIGNOLI, Francisca, Liliana Cavani. Ogni possibile viaggio, Le Mani, Recco, 2011.
BROCH, Hermann, «La maldad del kitsch», en KULKA, Tomas, El kitsch, Casimiro Libros, Madrid, 2011, pp. 9-25.
BRUNETTA, Gian Piero, Guida alla storia del cinema italiano 1905-2003, Einaudi, s. l., 2003.
BUSCEMI, Francesco, Invito al cinema di Liliana Cavani, Mursia, Milán, 1996.
CARTER, Nick, Modern Italy in historical perspective, Bloomsbury Academic, Londres, 2010.
CASETTI, Francesco, y DI CHIO, Federico, Cómo analizar un film, Paidós, Barcelona, 1991.
CASEY, Steven, «The campaign to Sell a Harsh Peace for Germany to the American Public», 1944-1948», History, n. 90, enero de 2005, pp. 62-92.
CAVANI, Liliana, El Portero de Noche, Icaria Editorial, Barcelona, 1976.
CHAIX, Marie, «Le fascisme ‘à la mode’», Le Nouvel Observateur, n. 492, 13 de abril de 1974, p. 49.
CIMENT, Michel, «Portier de Nuit», Positif. Revue de Cinema, n. 159, 1974, pp. 74-75.
CINQUEGRANI, Marria, «Die deutsche Trilogie. La riflessione storico-politica nell’ultimo cinema di Visconti», en DE GRASSI, Massimo, Visconti oggi: il valore di un eredità artistica, EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, Trieste, 2020, pp. 71-84.
CONSONNI, Manuela, «The Impact of the ‘Eichmann Event’ in Italy, 1961», The Journal of Israeli History, vol. 23, n. 1, 2004, pp. 91-99.
DE BERNARDI, Alberto, y GANAPINI, Luigi, Storia d’Italia (1860-1995), Milán, Paravia Bruno Mondadori, 2000.
DEIGHAN, Samm, The Legacy of World War II in European Arthouse Cinema, McFarland, Jefferson, 2021.
DELEUZE, Gilles, La imagen-tiempo. Estudios sobre cine 2. Paidós, Barcelona, 1987.
DELLA CASA, Steve, Splendor. Storia (inconsueta) del cinema italiano, Editori Laterza, Roma, 2013.
DINER, Hacia R., «Origins and meanings of the myth of silence», en CESARANI, David, y SUNDQUIST, Eric J., After the Holocaust. Challenging the Myth of Silence, Routledge, Londres, 2012.
FANTONI, Gianluca, Italy through the Red Lens. Italian Politics and Society in Communist Propaganda Films (1946-1979), Palgrave Macmillan, Nottingham, 2021.
FERRARA, Giuseppe, Luchino Visconti, Seghers, Paris, 1970.
FERRERO-REGIS, Tiziana, «From Cinecittà to the Small Screen: Italian Cinema After the Mid-1970s Crisis», en BURKE, Frank (ed.), A Companion to Italian Cinema, John Wiley & Sons, Boston, 2017, pp. 284-302.
FERRO, Marc, Historia contemporánea y cine, Ariel, Barcelona, 1995.
FIDDLER, Michael, y BANWELL, Stacy, «‘Forget about all your taboos’: transgressive memory and Nazisploitation», Studies in European Cinema, vol. 16, n. 2, 2019, pp. 141-154.
FOCARDI, Filippo, La guerra della memoria. La Resistenza nel dibattito politico italiano dal 1945 a oggi, Editori Laterza, Roma, 2005.
FOCARDI, Filippo, Nel cantiere della memoria. Fascismo, Resistenza, Shoah, Foibe, Viella, Roma, 2020.
FORGACS, David, «Days of Sodom: The Fascism-Perversion Equation in Films of the 1960s and 1970s», Italian Fascism, Palgrave Macmillan, Londres, 1999, pp. 216-236.
FOUCAULT, Michel, «Anti-rétro. Entretien avec Michel Foucault», Cahiers du Cinema, n. 251-252, 1974, pp. 5-19.
FOUCAULT, Michel, «Prefacio», en DELEUZE, Gilles y GUATTARI, Felix, Anti-Oedipus: capitalism and schizofrenia, University of Minnesota Press, Mineápolis, 1983.
FRIEDLÄNDER, Saul, Reflections on Nazism: an essay on Kitsch and Death, Harper & Row, Nueva York, 1984.
GARCÍA DEL VALL, Arnoldo, Liliana Cavani, Editorial Fundamentos, Madrid, 1980.
GUBERN GARRIGA-NOGUÉS, Román, «Dimensión política del discurso viscontiano», en MACCANTI, Luis, Luchino Visconti (1906-2006), Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2006, pp. 29-38.
GILES, Geoffrey, «The denial of homosexuality: same-sex incidents in Himmler’s SS and Police», Journal of the History of Sexuality, vol. 11, n. 1/2, enero-abril de 2002, pp. 256-290.
GRIFFIN, Roger, Fascism, Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 2019.
GUARNER ALONSO, José Luis, Conocer Visconti y su obra, Dopesa, Barcelona, 1978.
HAKE, Sabine, «Art and exploitation: On the fascist imaginary in 1970s Italian cinema», Studies in European Cinema, vol. 7, n. 1, 2010, pp. 11-19.
HOBSBAWN, Eric, Age of extremes. The short twentieth century, 1914 – 1991, Abacus, Londres, 1995.
IGRA, Samuel, Germany’s national vice, London Quality Press, Londres, 1945.
KAUFMAN, Theodore N., Germany must perish!, Argyle Press, Newark, 1941.
KEYSER, Lester J., «Three Faces of Evil: Fascism in Recent Movies», Journal of Popular Film, vol. 4, n. 1, 1975, pp. 21-31
KITCHEN, Martin, Fascism, The Macmillan Press, Londres, 1976.
KOVEN, Mikel T., «‘The Film you are about to see is Based on Documented Fact’: Italian Nazi Sexploitation Cinema», en MATHJIS, Ernest, y MENDIK, Xavier (eds.), Alternative Europe: eurotrash and exploitation cinema since 1945, Wallflower, Nueva York, 2004, pp. 19-31.
KRAUTHEIM, Grame, Masquerades of self-erasure: pornography and corporeal memory in Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (tesis de máster), University of British Columbia, 2009.
KULKA, Tomas, «El kitsch», en idem., El kitsch, Casimiro Libros, Madrid, 2011, pp. 9-25.
LANG-LENTON, Francisco Javier Ponce, «El señor paga: Luchino Visconti, cineasta homosexual», en MACCANTI, Luis, Luchino Visconti (1906-2006), Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2006, pp. 49-62.
LATHAM, Karen Bevacqua, Le temps retrouvé: memory and revision of World War II in french and italian film (tesis doctoral), University of Iowa, Iowa, 1997.
LEVI, Primo, I sommersi e i salvati, Einaudi, Turín, 1991 [1986].
LOZANO, Álvaro, El Holocausto y la cultura de masas, Editorial Melusina, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 2010.
LUMSDEN, Robin, The Allgemeine-SS, Oxford, Osprey, 2002.
MAGNY, Joël, «‘Portier de nuit’: triomphe de l’amour fou ou ambiguïté de l’ambiguïté? », Cinéma, n. 306, p. 54.
MANCHESTER, William, The Arms of Krupp, 1587-1968, Toronto, Little Brown Company, 1968 [1964].
MARCUS, Millicent Joy, Italian film in the Shadow of Auschwitz, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2017.
MARRONE, Gaetana, The gaze and the labyrinth: the cinema of Liliana Cavani, Princetown University Press, Chichester, 2000.
MCKEE, Robert, Story. Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, Harper Collins Publishers, Nueva York, 1997.
MIRET JORBA, Rafael, Luchino Visconti: la razón y la pasión, Fabregat, Barcelona, 1984.
MORGENTHAU, Henry, Germany is our Problem, Harper & Brothers Publishers, Nueva York, 1945.
MOVIEMAG, “Entrevista a Luchino Visconti: ‘La caduta degli dei’”, en RaiPlay.it, 2016, disponible en
NOWELL-SMITH, Geoffrey, Luchino Visconti, British Film Institute, Londres, 2003.
PÁEZ, Dario R., y LIU, James Hou-Fou, «Collective Memory of Conflicts», en BAR-TAL, Daniel, Intergroup conflicts and their resolution: a social psychological perspective, Psychology Press, 2011, pp. 105-124.
PAYNE, Stanley G., «Interpretations of fascism», en GRIFFIN, Roger y FELDMAN, Matthew, Fascism: The nature of fascism, Taylor & Francis, 2004, pp. 56-57.
PETERS, Michael A., « ‘The fascism in our heads’: Reich, Fromm, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari – the social pathology of fascism in the 21st century», Educational Philosophy and Theory, s. n., 2020, pp. 1-9.
PETERSEN, Jens, «Il mito della Resistenza nella cultura italiana». Annali dell’ Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento, n. 19, 1993, pp. 679-693.
PICART, Caroline Joan (Kay) S., y FRANK, David A., Frames of Evil. The Holocaust as horror in american film, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, 2006.
POGGIOLINI, Ilaria, «Translating memories of warand co-belligerency into politics: the Italian post-war experience», en MÜLLER, Jan-Werner, Memory & Power in post-war europe, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002.
RAPAPORT, Lynn, «Holocaust pornography: profaning the sacred in Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS», Shofar: an Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 22, n. 1, 2003, pp. 53-79.
RAVETTO, Kriss, The unmaking of fascist aesthetics, University of Minnesota Press, Mineápolis, 2001.
REICH, Wilhelm, La psicología de masas del fascismo, Roca, México D. F., 1973 [1933].
RENGA, Dana, «Staging memory and trauma in french and italian holocaust film», Romanic Review, mayo-noviembre de 2006, vol. 97, n. 3-4, pp. 461-482.
RICHARDSON, Michael D., «Sexual deviance and the naked body in cinematic representations of nazis», en MAGILOW, Daniel H.; BRIDGES, Elisabeth, y VANDER LUGT, Kristin T. (eds.), Nazisploitation!: the Nazi image in low-brow cinema and culture, Nueva York, Continuum, pp. 21-37 [edición digital].
RONCORONI, Stefano, «Dialogo con l’autore», en La caduta degli dei, Bolonia, Editorial Cappelli, 1969.
ROSENSTONE, Robert A., El pasado en imágenes. El desafío del cine a nuestra idea de la historia, Ariel, Barcelona, 1997.
SARRIS, Andrew, «The nasty Nazis: History or mythology?», The Village Voice, vol. 19, n. 42, 17 de octubre de 19174, pp. 76-77.
SCHERR, Rebecca, «The uses of memory and the abuses of fiction: sexuality in Holocaust fiction and memory», Other Voices. The (e)Journal of Cultural Criticism, vol. 2, n. 1, 2000, pp. 1-13
SCHIFANO, Laurence, Luchino Visconti: el fuego de la pasión, Paidós, Barcelona, 1991.
SHIRER, William L., Auge y caída del III Reich, Luis de Caralt Editor, Barcelona, 1962.
SINEUX, Michel, «Sur les ‘damnés’», Positif. Revue de Cinema, n. 116, 1970, pp. 61-64.
SONTAG, Susan, «Fascinating Fascism», New York Review of Books, vol. 6, n. 2, 1975, pp. 73-105, disponible en formato electrónico con distinta paginación en
STAKE, Robert E., «Estudios de caso cualitativos», en DENZIN, Norman K., y LINCOLN, Yvonna S., Manual de Investigación Cualitativa: las estrategias de investigación cualitativa III, Gedisa, Barcelona, 2013, pp. 154-198.
STIGLEGGER, Marcus, «Cinema beyond Good and Evil? Nazi Exploitation in tje Cinema of the 1970s and its Heritage», en MAGILOW, Daniel H.; BRIDGES, Elisabeth, y VANDER LUGT, Kristin T. (eds.), Nazisploitation!: the Nazi image in low-brow cinema and culture, Nueva York, 2012, pp. 21-37 [edición digital].
STIGLEGGER, Marcus, SadicoNazista: Geschichte, Film und Mythos, Books on Demand, s.l., 2016.
STIGLEGGER, Marcus, «Karneval des Todes. Luchino Visconti’s La caduta degli dei», en GLASENAPP, Jörn, Luchino Visconti, Edition text+kritik, Múnich, 2017, pp. 64-79.
TETENS, T. H., Know your enemy, Society for the Prevention of World War III, Nueva York, 1944.
TISO, Ciriaco, Cavani, Il Castoro Cinema, Bolonia, 1975.
TOTARO, Donato, «A Genealogy of Italian Popular Cinema: the Filone», Off Screen, vol. 15, n. 11, noviembre de 2011, s. p., disponible en < https://offscreen.com/view/genealogy_filone> [consultado en abril de 2022]
VADOLAS, Antonios, Perversions of fascism, Karnak, Londres, 2009.
VANOYE, Francis, y GOLIOT LETÉ, Anne, Principios de análisis cinematográfico, Abada Editores, Madrid, 2008.
VANSITTART, Robert, Black Record: Germans Past and Present, Hamish Hamilton, Londres, 1941.
VANSITTART, Robert, Lessons of my Life, Hutchinson & Co., Londres, 1943.
WALLER, Marguerite, «Signifying the Holocaust. Liliana Cavani’s Portiere di notte», en PIETROPAOLO, Laura, y TESTAFERRI, Ada, Feminisms in the cinema, Inidiana University Press, Bloomington, 1995, pp. 206-221.
WERTSCH, James V., y ROEDIGER III, Henry L., «Collective memory: conceptual foundations and theoretical approaches», Memory, vol. 16, n. 3, marzo de 2008, pp. 318-326.
WIRSCHING, Andreas, «From Hero’s Death to Suffering Victim: Reflections on the ‘Post-Heroic’ Culture of Memory», en HANSEN, Randall; SAUPE, Achim; WIRSCHING, Andreas, y YANG, Daqing (eds.), University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2021, pp. 21-49.
YERGER, Mark C., Allgemeine-SS. The Commands, Units and Leaders of the General SS, Atglen, Schiffer Publishing, 1997.
ZAMBONI, Camilla, Liminal figures, liminal places: visualizing trauma in italian holocaust cinema [tesis de máster], The Ohio State University, 2009.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors publishing in the journal Historia Contemporánea agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain full copyright of their papers, but also grant copyright to the academic publisher (UPV/EHU Press) for the purposes of copyright management, vigilance and protection.
- Papers are by default published with a non-restrictive Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. You are free to: Share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Under the following terms:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
- If an author requires a more restricted CC license (e.g. CC-BY-SA), this can be provided by contacting our publisher at: publications@ehu.eus
- In particular, and without having to request additional permission, CC BY-NC-ND licensed papers can be deposited in institutional repositories and academic web sites.
- Postprints (i.e. accepted but non-edited versions of the manuscript) can also be pre-published online, providing acknowledgement of authorship and source is specified as above.
For non-standard uses of papers or materials published in Historia Contemporánea, please contact our publisher UPV/EHU Press at: publications@ehu.eus