‘One Battle After Another’: Which America do you live in?
In this episode of Fascism on Film, we turn to Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another—the first contemporary release we’ve ever covered—and explore why its explosive, relentless energy belongs in a conversation about authoritarianism. We talk about the film’s stunning VistaVision photography, its overwhelming momentum, and what it was like to experience it in […]
‘Hans Westmar’: The Fascist Martyr
In this episode of Fascism on Film, we take on Hans Westmar (1933), part of the so-called “Martyr Trilogy” alongside S.A. Mann Brand and Hitler Youth Quex. The film attempts to mythologize Horst Wessel, the S.A. leader killed in 1930 whose death the Nazi Party turned into a foundational legend. We discuss the film’s unusual […]
Reich Cinema: Hitler’s Hollywood
In this episode of Fascism on Film, we discuss Hitler’s Hollywood (2017), a documentary examining German cinema under National Socialism from 1933 to 1945. We look at how the Nazi regime first tried overt propaganda films—box-office failures that audiences largely rejected—before shifting toward musicals, comedies, melodramas, and historical epics designed to deliver Nazi ideology through […]
Before the Curtain Falls: ‘The Last Metro’
In this episode of Fascism on Film, we turn to François Truffaut’s The Last Metro, a film set inside a Paris theater under Nazi occupation. As curfews fall and artists disappear, the stage becomes both refuge and trap. Catherine Deneuve stars as Marion Steiner, an actress trying to run her Jewish husband’s theater while secretly […]
An Empire of Crime: ‘The Testament of Dr. Mabuse’
In this episode of Fascism on Film, we examine Fritz Lang’s The Testament of Dr. Mabuse—the first film banned by the Nazis. It’s a prophetic thriller, made in 1932 and set for release in early 1933, it was suppressed by Joseph Goebbels, who feared its depiction of chaos, hypnosis, and control might undermine the methods […]
The Mistake of Identity: ‘Mr. Klein’
In this episode of the Fascism on Film Podcast, we discuss Joseph Losey’s 1976 masterpiece Mr. Klein, set in Nazi-occupied France. Alain Delon plays Robert Klein, a Paris art dealer who profits from the desperation of Jewish families forced to sell their belongings before deportation. He’s confident and comfortable in his privilege—until a Jewish newspaper […]
Finding the Courage: ‘This Land Is Mine’
Jean Renoir’s This Land Is Mine (1943) turns a Hollywood wartime drama into a story about fear, conscience, and the quiet choice to resist. Made after Renoir fled Vichy France, the film follows Albert Lory (Charles Laughton), a shy schoolteacher who must face his own cowardice under Nazi occupation.