Newsreels
The drift to the political right in certain parts of Western Europe, which seems to be repeating 100 years later, dominates our selection of newsreel items from 1923. In November, Italy’s fascist party under Benito Mussolini celebrated its first full year in power with an imposing spectacle in Rome. A few months earlier, Italian diplomat Enrico Tellini was murdered in the wake of border disputes between Greece and Albania following the Treaty of Lausanne. The incident led to a breakdown in Italian-Greek relations, culminating in Italy’s occupation of Corfu on 31 August.
In Germany, on 8 November, Adolf Hitler, leader of the burgeoning National Socialist German Workers Party, led an unsuccessful putsch against the Bavarian government in Munich. While the putsch itself may have failed, it succeeded in bringing Hitler, then still a minor figure, to the country’s – and indeed the world’s – attention. The future dictator can be briefly glimpsed in a short clip from the Nazi-organized German Day in Bayreuth on 31 September.
Outside of politics, a compilation of two Czech newsreels pays tribute to Sarah Bernhardt, the celebrated French actress who died on 26 March 1923. The first part presents moments from the life of “the divine Sarah”, while the second part documents her funeral in Paris, which was attended by 30,000 people. The print being screened may only contain flash titles, but the images speak for themselves.

Oliver Hanley