In a late evening of 1976, a local Italian television broadcasts a quiz where viewers at home have to answer questions. For each correct answer, a housewife takes off a garment and does a brief dance. The format is simple and very successful.Unaware viewers did not know that the show was the beginning of a complete change on the way of doing television. A revolution that would forever change the entire Italian political system, changing the values and becoming a powerful instrument of government for the nation.
The movements of the housewives strips are the first images of Videocracy, a documentary film by Erik Gandini, which will be presented September 3 in the Venice international film festival, in the independent section of the 24th International Critics' Week (SIC). So the public will enjoy eighty minutes of reportage on Berlusconi's Italy and especially on anthropological and cultural changes described by this forty-year-old director who has lived in Bergamo up to 18 years and then moved to Sweden. The one who is speaking, then, is even more ruthless because he is an Italian who looks puzzled at what has become today his country.
After thirty years of seminude girls, shaved guys, millionaires quizzes, gossip of any kind, ever more irreverent jokes and reality shows that have the only purpose of throwing new "human material" in the cauldron of television, who ran everything has reached his goal: give to television the power of democracy. This is the key of the movie. "In a videocracy the key of power is the image - said the filmmaker -. In Italy only one man has dominated the images for three decades. He was a TV magnate, then President: Silvio Berlusconi has created a perfect combination, characterized by political and entertainment television, as anyone else influencing the content of commercial television in the country. His TV channels, known fot the excessive display of seminude girls, are considered by many a mirror of his tastes and his personality."
The chronicle of the last months, especially of recent days, shows the president has never changed his tastes on women.
Above all, what he has never changed is the message that must get to his audience: "have fun and forget the harsh realities of the moment."
Beyond the political views of individuals, the film aims to show how television can affect the behavior of individuals. Nanni Moretti in his film Il Caimano stated that "Berlusconi has already won, he changed our mind three decades ago".
Without him there wouldn't be today people as Lele Mora, Fabrizio Corona or the Big Brother, the "veline", the tronisti, a multitude of people who live only because appears and, thanks to television, may win a seat in Parliament and perhaps even becoming Minister for equal opportunities.
This is Italy of today. It is the documentary by Erik Gandini, which already make people reflect and, surely, will attract attention in Venice as the movies of the most famous directors. It is the power of TV.
The universe of women in the italian television on the blog The women's body
Marianna Lepore
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Quindi e' la RAI che s'e' avvicinata agli standard Mediaset, non il contrario. Chi ha cominciato con i reality? Chi con i superquiz? RAI copia sempre pur di star dietro a Mediaset. E alla fine abbiamo 6 canali di Stato che trasmettono schifezze 24h inclusi i TG che per carita' non devono alzare la testa perche' senno' al Capo non fa piacere. Che senno' vengono tacciati di faziosita'. Ma che razza di Paese e' mai questo??? Ma vai all'estero e renditi conto di cosa voglia dire liberta' di stampa. Io vivo negli States da 3 anni e non ho parole di come gli italiani non riescano a guardare al di la' del proprio naso.
Questo tuttavia non esclude il fenomeno secondo cui la televisione ha il ptere di rendere popolare chi sta dall altra parte dello schermo, perche che esso sia un luminare o un inetto, la sua apparizione in televisione lo porta a conoscenza della popolazione televisiva che in italia coincide con tutto il resto della popolazione e quindi ne produce la sua popolarita.
NYTimes Op-Ed Contributor
Italian Women Rise Up
By CHIARA VOLPATO, Professor, University of Milan
Published: August 27, 2009
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s sexist behavior has fueled a feminist movement.
http://www.pwa-milan.org/?p=927
Last week, the head of the Protezione Civile (civil defense, an equivalent of FEMA), the man who was the celebrated saviour of the people of Abruzzo after the recent quake has been caught in a ring of bribery and prostitution.
Meanwhile the Italian People is still brainwashed by TV. Berlusconi owns the three biggest national private networks and controls the three channels of state TV.
Nessuno può fare quello che ha fatto Berlusconi senza la complicità di buona parte degli Italiani;
Adesso che Berlusconi finalmente si è dimesso per la Crisi Italiana ed Europea dopo 17 anni di promesse mancate molti italiano iniziano a capire, ma rimane purtroppo uno zoccolo duro di sostenitori.
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