1900 – directed by Bernardo Bertolucci – 1976
“It took me 73 years to see a landlord work.”
1900
about the rise and fall
of Fascism in Italy –
the opportunistic bullies –
the women and children abused –
everyone on the bottom rung
but collaborators.
DeNiro plays the rich padron who collaborates with the Fascists – but you better not call him a Fascist or he’ll exert his violent will on you, or his wife, who roasts him by noting that his childhood best-friend Elmo wouldn’t “have anything to do with the wife of a Fascist” – and the damning burn to every bully, “You will kill me because we can’t make love anymore.”
After the Fascists attack peasants and kill children –
the peasants walk through the streets
displaying the bodies to the town
crying out against the Fascists
and yelling “Wake Up!”
to closed windows and doors.
May we never need to make just such a movie here.