Delivered by Intellect to: Jim Carter (33326654) IP: 76.24.33.1 On: Mon, 02 Jan 2023 23:34:22 JICMS 11 (1) pp. 220–223 Intellect Limited 2023 220 Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies ITALY THROUGH THE RED LENS: ITALIAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY IN COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA FILMS (1946–1979), GIANLUCA FANTONI (2021) Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 293 pp., ISBN 978-3-03069-196-7, h/bk, $139.99 Reviewed by Jim Carter, Boston University Rarely does a scholar find a topic so understudied that they can fit the rele- vant bibliography in a single endnote. This is exactly what Gianluca Fantoni does in the introduction to his book Italy through the Red Lens: the cinematic production of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) has been treated by only six publications, four of which are connected to the party, its militants and institu- tions. Fantoni’s book – an independent academic monograph – makes seven, presenting the disciplines of history and film studies with a new collection of primary sources and analysing them within the context of post-war Italian left thought. Italy through the Red Lens is undoubtedly a contribution to the study of ‘useful cinema’ insofar as it responds not to questions of aesthetics but rather to concerns about utility. How do films (intend to) influence patterns of think- ing, buying, voting and other activities? Recent scholarship has approached these problems with reference to governments and businesses. Fantoni’s book centres political parties, and specifically the PCI, as organizations that use cinematic technology to mobilize populations in the service of short-term (electoral) and long-term (social) goals. The PCI established its own cinema section in 1946. It made films about party history and strategy, most of which mixed documentary footage with staged sequences. Notwithstanding contemporary associations between the PCI and neo-realism, in these early years the party actually preferred the rosy triumphalism of Soviet-style socialist realism, while any support for directors like Vittorio de Sica, Roberto Rossellini or Luchino Visconti was premised upon an appreciation of content, not form (what better endorsement of the ‘svolta di Salerno’ than the cooperation of a communist militant and a Catholic priest in Rome, Open City [Rossellini 1945]?). The PCI thus subordinated the analy- sis of filmic texts to political ideology and it did the same with the production of filmic texts. During the first five years, these were addressed to an inter- nal audience of already-committed communists, and they were distributed via a network of party-sponsored film clubs. Fantoni calls these films ‘propa- ganda’ because, in his words, ‘their primary aim was to translate issues related to the evolving political struggle into cinematic form’ (4), to reinforce for the party’s constituency – and eventually the Italian electorate – the leadership’s dominant interpretation of events. For example, the film 14 luglio (‘14 July’) (Pellegrini 1948) covers the assassination attempt on PCI secretary Palmiro Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies Volume 11 Number 1 © 2023 Intellect Ltd Book Review. English language. https://doi.org/10.1386/jicms_00174_5