Welles & Nazi influence at RKO

blunted by community · Tue Mar 16, 2004 12:50 pm

history channel is showing documentary of the american nazi party. shortly before hitler attacked the chek republic, the american nazi party had a rally at madisin square garden. the newsreel footage had all the angles i saw in kane during the presidential rally. the stage set up, the balcony shots, it was all there.

also, if we remember, the lighting for julius ceaser was inspired by newsreels footage welles saw of the neuremberg rally. welles during his broadway days was a regular at the movie theaters.

Goebbels could have made a fortune had he applied at RKO, but he would not have been allowed to persucute any jews.

i can almost picture his resume to RKO.

Glenn Anders · Post by **Glenn Anders** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 2:37 pm

That is an interesting observation, Blunted. I think, more to the point, that anyone living in the 1930's had to be impressed if not influenced by the power of Fascist Art (as we have kicked around in reference to Leni Riefenstahl.) In the case of Welles, there are all those references looking down on people as if they were ants or "the little people," and stylistic touches which use fascist film techniques.

CITIZEN KANE, without saying it in so many words, is about the rise and falling short of a disillusioned idealist, an American Fascist. Had Kane won the governorship of New York, he might have become _ _ [fill in the blank].

Welles was profoundly anti-fascist all through his life, as his every public and most of his private acts suggest, but when he was creating fascist or totalitarian themes (as he did many times in his career) -- KANE, JOURNEY INTO FEAR, THE STRANGER, MACBETH, THE THIRD MAN, MR.ARKADIN, TOUCH OF EVIL, THE TRIAL, etc. -- he used fascist styles, modified to his purposes.

The difference was, of course, that most of the time, he saw these characters clearly and invested them with a certain humanity. He was able to present them as human beings, rather than cardboard effigies.

Glenn

blunted by community · Tue Mar 16, 2004 4:00 pm

glenn, absolutely, facist art and lighting captured germany for hitler. hitler won them all over with clever lighting and geometrically balanced choreography. welles' style is so geometrically balanced, how could he not be influenced on a purely artistic level, then take that he was making a film about a man with a facist rising.

from what i've read, Goebbels was the third reich artist.

Glenn Anders · Post by **Glenn Anders** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 6:45 pm

Yes, Blunted, he was very interested in the Arts, in his capacity as Minister of Information, in order to spread the Good News of Nazism. Today, he would have at least two hours daily on Fox.

Glenn

blunted by community · Tue Mar 16, 2004 6:50 pm

oh, glenn, what a slap at my favorite extreme right wing news channel!

Welles Fan · Post by **Welles Fan** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 10:56 pm

And if Che Guevara were alive, he'd probably be able to get a gig reading the news at CBS.

Oh, wait. They already have a dictator-loving leftist stooge reading the news over there.

Never mind....

-EDIT-
Pic removed. (It was a pic of Dan Rather hugging a guy he really admires-that great humanitarian: Fidel Castro).

Jeff Wilson · Post by **Jeff Wilson** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 9:27 am

Can we dispense with the political baiting, please? This is not a politics board, after all.

Edited By Jeff Wilson on Mar. 19 2004 at 09:27