NEWSREELS
The 1920s were a golden age of cinema, but not of the world. In 1922 civil war was raging in Ireland, while the Greek-Turkish conflict and 3,000 years of Greek settlements in Asia Minor ended in the Great Fire of Smyrna – and rightwing fascism started its rise to power in Europe. The Éclair Journal no. 26 contains a few beautiful shots of Walther Rathenau, the eminent German statesman, industrialist and writer who was murdered by members of the secret ultra-right Organisation Consul, on 24 June 1922. Their plan to provoke a civil war and to establish an authoritarian regime failed; their crime had the effect of strengthening the Weimar democracy, for the time being. In Italy however, the fascists succeeded; in October 1922, Vittorio Emanuele III appointed Mussolini prime minister. The footage of the March on Rome comes from Gaumont Pathé Archives, and like much of the footage in our selection it is marked as NU, “not used”, or outtakes. The visual quality of the outtakes is excellent, and the rough editing enhances their immediacy, but there are of course no intertitles.

Mariann Lewinsky