benito mussolini

Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio has been behind the camera for so long -- he made his directorial debut nearly half a century ago -- that it is hard to keep his whole career in mind without breaking it down into smaller, more easily digestible parts. Bellocchio's latest film, "Vincere," is the most explosive yet of his provocations, documenting the rise to power of future fascist dictator Benito Mussolini from the perspective of the wife he abandoned. Bellocchio's most striking film in years, "Vincer  

An agent for Lazio striker Mauro Zarate has defended the Argentinian star, who was photographed giving the Nazi salute, by insisting the 23-year-old did not realise the significance of his gesture. Zarate caused outrage in Italy last week after he was pictured with a group of fans at Rome's Olympic Stadium giving the Nazi salute as he sat out his side's 2-0 defeat to Bari last Sunday with a suspension. The controversy was worsened by the fact Zarate's German team-mate Thomas Hitzlsperger came on as a  

Writer-director Marco Bellocchio's "Vincere" is an amazing, galvanic experience. It's about the hushed-up story of Benito Mussolini's first wife and child, but no one will ever mistake this movie for a standard biopic. It's too raw, too primal.  

The health care reform political contest in D.C. is a bubble about to burst and it looks like the mega-corporations will once again emerge victorious. It is pretty safe to say that for convenience sake we frequently accept what we are told to believe. In this age of a corporate state intent upon the destruction of all vestiges of individuality by every means available, one proposal seems as good as any other and maybe we are not getting the complete picture.

...The Fascist State organizes the nation, but leaves a sufficient margin of liberty to the individual; the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom, but retains what is essential; the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual, but the state alone. ...   -Benito Mussolini

 

In a series of photos showing four-month-old Faustina decked out in reviled-historical-figure gear, the artist reckons she has explored the meaning of evil. As well the Nazi leader's kit, complete with Swastika armband, Kleivan put together costumes for her daughter to pose as Ayatolla Khomenei, Benito Mussolini, Chairman Mao, Idi Amin, Augusto Pinochet and Slobodan Milosevic. "We all have evil within us. Even small children are evil towards each other," she told Haaretz.com.  

After defending such clients as Sacco and Vanzetti and Charles Ponzi (yes, that Ponzi), my paternal grandfather, a lawyer and Jewish Italophile, published in 1930 a slim book, Italy and Your Senses , which is not, as the title suggests, a poetic tribute to Italian art, topography or people but rather a valentine to Benito Mussolini, whom he considered the resurrection and the light. I mention this to show that while my grandfather's infatuation with Mussolini was extreme, he was not alone. Italy's fasci  

Today is Thursday, March 18, the 77th day of 2010. There are 288 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History:  

On March 18, 1910, the first filmed adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein," produced by Thomas Edison's New York movie studio, was released, with Charles Ogle as the Monster. On this date: In 1766, Britain repealed the Stamp Act of 1765.  

Mr. and Mrs. Chester Bahn of Rochester won the mixed pairs Flight B in the American Contract Bridge League's 1980 Championships held in Fresno, Calif. The Rochester Chapter of the National Organization of Women accused the Mayo Clinic of job discrimination and unfair firing practices. Mayo Clinic has denied all allegations.