“The Red Scare” and the famous Hollywood blacklist of the McCarthy era will be the appropriate subjects for a retrospective at this year’s Locarno Film Festival. Under the title Red and Black – The Hollywood Left and the Blacklistthe The Swiss festival’s Retrospettiva, curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht, will once again highlight “one of the most turbulent and politically charged periods in the history of American cinema.”
Last year, the festival revisited Great Expectations of post-war British cinema. This year it focuses on a political period in post-war Hollywood history. From 1947 to the early 1960s, Hollywood professionals suspected of communist ties faced a crackdown. Produced in partnership with the Cinémathèque Suisse and with support from the UCLA Film and Television Archive, Locarno explained, it will paint “a complex picture of an era in which creatives faced unprecedented abuse of state and industry power, and courageously faced fierce artistic resistance.”
“As the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union swelled into a defining feature of world politics, right-wing voices in the American political system claimed communism had penetrated Hollywood,” the festival explained. “Trial-like hearings followed, instigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee. The industry responded in fear, imposing a blacklist that upended careers, forced artists to adopt pseudonyms, stifled freedom of expression, and exiled creators abroad. Guilt tore apart families, and films with leftist ideas — real or imagined — were suppressed.”
Red and Black – The Hollywood Left and the Blacklist “We will revisit this repressive and creatively defiant era, which reflects the political attacks on freedom of expression and artistic freedom that we are witnessing again today,” Locarno concluded. The program will include films by directors, writers and stars such as John Garfield, Joseph Losey, Dalton Trumbo, Dorothy Parker, Richard Wright and Charles “Charlie” Chaplin.
It was not immediately revealed which films will be featured in the retrospective. But includes feature films, documentaries, newsreels and short films from the United States, Britain, Spain, Italy, France, Mexico and Argentina, Red and black It will serve digital restoration and archival prints, accompanied, as in previous years, by a book featuring contributions from international film scholars and critics published by Les éditions de l’œil. First, a podcast related to the retrospective, written by Khoshbakht, will detail some of the history and context of the Blacklist era.
“If you insist on calling classic Hollywood a ‘dream factory,'” Khoshbakht said, “you should also see how that notion has been shattered by some of the most politically progressive figures in the history of American cinema across more than 40 films brought together in this retrospective. It is the best film I have ever worked on. The imaginative ways of incorporating political consciousness into film, and the tragic consequences of this political design, make up the thrilling story of this program. Offering new angles on the McCarthy-era witch hunt.”
Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the Locarno Festival, added: “This retrospective will be a unique critical and historical endeavor that sheds new light on a bleak passage of Hollywood history. This program will provide a new context to reframe the conflicts of the time through a broader lens, allowing the audience to understand the impact of political oppression. This historical context is supported by a wide and compelling range of films and, as a complement, rarely shown documents. A pivotal moment in cinema history will therefore be brought back to life as we celebrate some of the most daring, exciting and audacious films Ever in Hollywood.
The 79th Locarno Film Festival will be held from August 5 to 15.
