Italy's 'red belt': built-in peaceful co-existence

Workers Press no. 160, 12 May 1970 · scan page 4

Title, by-line and extent checked against the scan: p4 (printed page three), review of the documentary 'Bagnolo', 'Reviewed by DAVID BARNES' (was credited to New Park Books from the advert); cut out 17 Oct 2026. The text is still machine-read, in the order the machine read the columns; for anything you quote, read the scan.

TIME Completes a trilogy by David Mercer, he previous plays being 'On the Eve of Publication' and 'The Cellar and THE SHORT documentary 'Bagnolo' at Academy One, despite the pious intentions of its makers, is of considerable interest.

Bagnolo is a small Italian town near Reggio Emilia in the Po valley.

Like almost all the surrounding Emilian 'red belt' it is a stronghold of the Communist Party. 70 per cent of the young people are enrolled in the Communist youth organization.

In this prosperous agricultural region the Party has built a whole network of co-operatives and political, cultural and social organizations.

One after another its complacent functionaries appear Where

BAGNOLO

a documentary about Italy's 'red belt. Showing at Academy One London.

on the screen to recount its achievements in 'social progress'.

'While there are problems,' the film-makers are telling us, 'everything in the garden is rosey, and will get gradually rosier.' The amiable villain of the piece is the Church, in the person of a grinning and gaptoothed priest.

The vicarage, the church (with an illuminated plate-glass spire) and the private shops share one side (naturally, the right) of the high street, while on the other are the Party offices, the Chamber of Labour and the co-operatives.

Built-in peaceful co-existence, one might say.

But in some scenes the character of class relations shows through. The honoured citizens of the whole town are the old men who survived from the resistance to fascism, chatting in a bar provided for their use and to commemorate those who were killed.

The big question mark is that of the use of the land.

The landlords want to switch from farming to poplar growing, profiting from Italy's booming demand for paper BBC Michele Dotri plays EMMA Reviewed b AVID BARN We see little of the ordinary people of the town, except to be shown their idiosyncracies, such as life-long Communist Party members marrying sheepishly in Church.

The screen is mainly reserved for the notables and among them one contrast is outstanding.

Lack confidence The Party men are serious, responsible figures who nonetheless seem to lack some inner confidence, to feel that what has been gained in Bagnolo is in some way too good to be true.

The priest, despite the fact that his congregation is tiny, is abubble with his plans and achievements.

Reflected in him is the unreduced power of an old possessing class.

As he says of a gift of a million lire towards a Catholic nursery school: "Though times are not what they might be, the Madonna was kind enough to encourage me'.