Mister Lonely feat. The Flying Nuns

Film Can Make You Feel Happy. Just ask Harmony Korine and Werner Herzog!

White Telephones = Telefoni Bianchi

The historical and political context is so important if one wishes to truly understand the meaning and importance of a film. I created this blog for this purpose. This blog will mostly consist of historical and political interpretations of some of my favourite films. In addition to these short essays I reserve the right to post whatever else I damn well please, its my blog after all. This could include: pointless lists, director retrospectives, upcoming movies I'm looking forward to, etc. I may also choose a crap movie here and there just to mix things up (Armageddon would be fun). Now I'm only tackling one part of a film, but its one of the parts I'm most interested in so I think its the best way to move forward. I'd most likely get lost in a more multi-faceted approach so I will keep it focused. You can choose to disagree with my conclusion if you wish (and if you do so please comment), most likely my conclusion will be a stretch. Lets face it, combining my love for movies and my love for history and politics into a blog was bound to happen.

So this being the first post I'll explain the meaning behind the blog title: White Telephones.

"During the period of fascist rule under Mussolini the type of cinema that was being produced was divorced from reality and concerned only with promoting a good image of Italy. The government had decreed that crime and immorality should not be put on screen. The flims primarily produced were slick middle-class melodramas, disparagingly called (after fascism) 'white telephone movies."

White telephones were featured prominently throughout the background set of these films as they were a status symbol of bourgeois wealth. While possibly an extreme example, Italian 'white telephone movies' during the fascist era were a product of the political environment which sought to promote a rigid class heirarchy and respect for authority.

Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci greatly contributed to the discourse on cultural hegemony which can help explain the important tool that film can be for those with the resources at their disposal. The 'white telephone movies' according to him would have been seen as a kind of ideological coercion. The bourgeois ideals presented in these films became the ideals of the viewing public regardless of their actual position in the class heirarchy. Poisoned by false dreams of climbing the social ladder, the status quo was kept by the very people who were most disadvantaged by it. Another large part of this was the fact that the life and struggles of working class Italians were never presented on the big screen (this would lead to the Italian neo-realist backlash of the post-war era). Thus the proletariat identified their own good with the good of the bourgeoisie. Cultural hegemony occurs when the values of one strata of society become 'common sense' shared but all of society's members. Cultural hegemony is produced through a culture's folklore:

"Folklore should instead be sudied as a 'conception of the world and life' implicit to a large extent in determinate (in time and space) strata of society and in opposition (also for the most part implicit, mechanical, and objective) to 'official' conceptions of the world (or in a broader sense, the conceptions of the cultured parts of historically determinate societies) that have sucedded one another in the historical process." - Gramsci

Folklore is film; film is folklore. Society defines itself based on its folklore. Film can be seen as not only a tool to pacify, but also as a tool to mould. If society is inundated with stories of bourgeois elegance, over time these values are adopted by the greater part of a vulnerable society. Control through violence limits both the funds and legitimacy of a state (and those who the state is there to serve) so more subtle means of control are required. As an alteration of the old saying goes: "If you can't beat em, make them join you." You can argue that 'white telephone movies' are an extreme example with no equivalent in contemporary times. But is the ultra neo-conservative message of 'Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen' any less influential and piercing than these fascist approved films of the Mussolini era? Certainly a world wide box office gross of $832 621 891 shows what a powerful effect movies can have on our minds and worldviews.

I consider 'White Telephones' an appropriate title for my blog because it is there as a reminder that a film is much more than what the senses can pick up. Historical and Political subtexts must also be considered. No detail is too small. All that I ask is that next time you go see a movie, don't ever go thinking that you are just doing it for entertainment. There are greater forces at work behind the silver screen.

K Banks