Why are fascists so cool?

[G-Man]

Why are fascists so cool?

Franco was the lamest fascist dictator wasn't he?

"Cooo-eee, over here over here, look at me, I'm playing with Adolf!"

And if you look casually at Franco's left hand, it looks like he's wearing a handbag. So, which fascist dictator had the scooter, the ball and the acid?

[Anton Gramscescu]

Why are fascists so cool?

I just saw the movie "Max" again the other day, and was struck by the movie's pretension that "politics is the new art" (I doubt Hitler ever actually said that, but within the context of the movie, where John Cusack keeps trying to convince everyone that Hitler really could be the new Marinetti, is interesting).

The final few scenes, where Cusack is getting incredibly excited about the whole "imaginary world" Hitler has created, with its uniforms and architecture - a modernist take on really quite creepy ancient images - are highly relevant to this thread.

AdC, have you seen this movie? What did you think?

[Bruno]

Why are fascists so cool?

Wyatt Earp wrote:

The Purple Cow wrote:

Franco was the lamest fascist dictator wasn't he?

The wise men are all dead and Claudius, the fool, has survived.

Nice.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Why are fascists so cool?

AdC, have you seen this movie? What did you think?

No I haven't but it sounds as though I should.

There are certainly theories (eg: that art has no intrinsic morality) within post-modern aesthetics that lend credence to those kind of ideas. They've encouraged reevaluations of groups like the Futurists and made kitsch (which is what most fascist and official communist art was labeled) a viable study area rather than a perjorative term.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Why are fascists so cool?

Oh yes, do see it - it's a fictionalized account of how Hitler (Noah Taylor) ended up in politics rather than in art, showing him struggling between the two as different media of expression.

It also has one of my favourite lines in all of film history.

"you're a hard man to like Hitler...c'mon, let me buy you a lemonade"

[DCI Harry Batt]

Why are fascists so cool?

Eggchaser wrote:

Speaking of fascists, is it true the Italians are proposing to separate immigrant children into diferent classes from the Italian kids at school?

Yes

[Kowalski]

Why are fascists so cool?

Hugo Boss did the Nazis' uniforms

[Anton Gramscescu]

Why are fascists so cool?

He manufactured them, but didn't design them.

[Kowalski]

Why are fascists so cool?

I thought he designed them as well.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Why are fascists so cool?

Don't think so. Boss ran a small factory doing postal and janitorial uniforms and the like - it didn't really become a design powerhouse until some Italians bought it in the 70s.

Check out this article from the New York Times - it's not 100% clear, but it makes it sound like Boss was just one of many companies given the manufacturing contract.

[Kowalski]

Why are fascists so cool?

Thanks Antonio,

I was thinking about all this earlier.

There was a TV ad for BASF and I was reminded of their connection with the Nazi regime, then we have IBM's counting machines of course.