Foundational Films: The Memorialization of Resistance in Italy, France, Belarus and Yugoslavia

Film, according to Robert Rosenstone, has become the ‘chief medium for carrying the stories our culture tells itself’.1 This affirmation has special relevance for the first half of the 20th century, given the popularity of historical films in this era, and the emergence of cinema as the most popular form of mass entertainment throughout urban Western Europe. In spite of their popularity, or perhaps because of it, the use of films as historical sources remains contested, and we are accustomed to debates that pit cinematic adaptations against the events on which they are based. Normally, in these contests, the popular media is deemed unsuitable, limited or simplistic, even when allowing for format and time constraints. In addition, two schools of thought treat films differently. While film history tends to assess the documentary evidence related to a film’s production and reception, film scholars seek to elucidate its cinematic ‘language’, reading closely its photographic construction and technical details. This essay merges both approaches to study a doubly partisan subject: civilian resistance to fascism in the Second World War.