Movie: Ben Building: Mussolini, Monuments and Modernism

Top 1 Billed Cast

Jonathan Meades
Jonathan Meades

Himself

  • HomePage

  • Overview

    Having previously investigated the architecture of Hitler and Stalin's regimes, Jonathan Meades turns his attention to another notorious 20th-century European dictator, Mussolini. His travels take him to Rome, Milan, Genoa, the new town of Sabaudia and the vast military memorials of Redipuglia and Monte Grappa. When it comes to the buildings of the fascist era, Meades discovers a dictator who couldn't dictate, with Mussolini caught between the contending forces of modernism and a revivalism that harked back to ancient Rome. The result was a variety of styles that still influence architecture today. Along the way, Meades ponders on the nature of fascism, the influence of the Futurists, and Mussolini's love of a fancy uniform.

  • Release Date

    2016-06-01

  • Average

    6.5

  • Rating:

    3.3 starts
  • Tagline

  • Genres

  • Languages:

    English
  • Keywords

Recommendations Movies

Lucky
40%

Lucky(en)

2017-06-16

Lucky, an undocumented immigrant, struggles to make his way in New York but finds himself caught in a web of crime and murder, forcing him to take extreme action.

Οι Κολοσσοί του έρωτα
60%

Οι Κολοσσοί του έρωτα(el)

2010-03-17

Titled Colossi of Love, the documentary highlights the halcyon days of the kamaki (Greek for harpoon) suitors in the 70s and 80s when droves of women from mainly Scandinavia, Germany and Britain flocked to the Greek islands.

PorNO
42%

PorNO(it)

2010-02-01

Max films his friends having lecherous fun at his own birthday party; unaware of how it will change his life. Just out of high school, by haphazard, he becomes a big porno producer. His father, a principled police major, chases porno makers, not suspecting that one of them lives in his own apartment. Hoodlums and girls from good families, corrupted policemen, petty dealers find themselves in a luring and scary world of porno.

The Lake of Sighs
56%

The Lake of Sighs(el)

1959-01-01

Ioannina, in the beginning of the 19th century. The whole Greece is under Turks. Ioannina is governed by the fierce and vulgar Ali Pasas. Ali’s eldest son, Muchtar, falls in love with a young Greek widow, Frosyni. The problem is, he’s married to the vindictive and cruel Chanife. And the muslim penalty for having an affair with a married man is death…

Reform School
0%

Reform School(en)

1939-04-27

A female warden takes over at a state reform school and attempts to bring about needed changes. Restored in 2020 by the Academy Film Archive with additional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts from a 16mm print donated by Giancarlo Esposito and Laurence Fishburne.

Bo Bear's Vacation
67%

Bo Bear's Vacation(no)

2019-10-11

Julian goes on holiday with Bo Bear, but wants a peer playmate more than anything. Can green waffles or fantasy magic help Julian make a friend?

Miracle on Ice
60%

Miracle on Ice(en)

1981-03-01

The story of the 1980 United States Olympic hockey players, a group of amateurs from around the country who were whipped into a cohesive unit by controversial coach Herb Brooks to win a gold medal at Lake Placid during the winter games.

Men and Beasts
52%

Men and Beasts(ru)

1962-11-02

The plot is based on the dramatic fate of the Red Army commander Aleksei Ivanovich Pavlov. Having been captured in January 1942 and being among the displaced persons, he didn't immediately decide to return to the USSR. Having rolled around the foreign country for 17 years, Aleksei nevertheless returned to his homeland. He goes to his brother in the south of the country to Sevastopol. Aleksei accidentally meets the doctor Anna Andreyevna, who was saved from death in besieged Leningrad. She travels by car from Moscow and also to the south, with her daughter Tanya; she suggests he join them. Aleksei tells about his life on the road.

The Blonde from Singapore
50%

The Blonde from Singapore(en)

1941-10-15

Fortune hunter Mary Brooks, posing as a missionary's daughter, strives to beat a couple of pilots, Terry Prescott and "Waffles" Billings, (who have turned pearl divers in order to buy a plane and join the Royal Air Force), out of their pearls, while also beating off the advances of Prince Sali who wants to add her to his harem.

Acıların Kadını
50%

Acıların Kadını(tr)

1986-04-09

Song of Goats
50%

Song of Goats(pl)

2023-12-01

Andreas arrives on a remote Greek island to sell a plot of land inherited from his uncle. But who would buy a barren, rocky field with a stone hut? In order to sell the plot Andreas has to pay off a debt his uncle ran up with Yiannis, a local farmer.

Rest in Peace, Gone Forever the Clown
60%

Rest in Peace, Gone Forever the Clown(pt)

2019-01-08

clowns !!!!!!!

The Notorious Reverend Death
70%

The Notorious Reverend Death(en)

2016-11-17

About reverend George Exoo who by his own count has helped 102 people to die.

Barnabo of the Mountains
55%

Barnabo of the Mountains(it)

1994-05-28

The year is 1919 and it's forest rangers versus poachers in the Dolomite mountains in this Italian drama based on a morality tale by Dino Buzzati. The first scene, which contains no dialog, depicts the murder of a young ranger in the snowy peaks. Barnabo is a taciturn young ranger new to the mountains. He is a pacifist and is uncomfortable carrying his rifle. Upon his hand is a stigmata that periodically bleeds. The poachers murder another ranger. This time it is the commanding officer. The rangers organize a patrol to find them, but they are unsuccessful. It is Barnabo who locates them. They escape because he is unable, or afraid to shoot them. He is dishonorably discharged and now finds it hard to escape the label of coward. He leaves the mountains and becomes a farm-hand. While he labors, he reflects upon the experience and those of his life. A internal moral struggle ensues as he tries to make sense of it all and find some inner peace.

Nietos (Identidad y memoria)
70%

Nietos (Identidad y memoria)(es)

2004-03-25

Documentary about children stolen during Argentina's dictatorship that collects testimonies from kidnapped between 1976 and 1983. During these years, thousands of people were kidnapped and murdered with impunity. In many cases, the state appropriated the newborns of pregnant women at the time of his abduction. The disappearance of 500 children is one of the darkest legacies of this period. However, the tireless work of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo became possible that a hundred of these children were returned to their families.

Similar Movies

2 or 3 Things I Know About Him
66%

2 or 3 Things I Know About Him(de)

2005-04-07

What would your family reminiscences about dad sound like if he had been an early supporter of Hitler’s, a leader of the notorious SA and the Third Reich’s minister in charge of Slovakia, including its Final Solution? Executed as a war criminal in 1947, Hanns Ludin left behind a grieving widow and six young children, the youngest of whom became a filmmaker. It's a fascinating, maddening, sometimes even humorous look at what the director calls "a typical German story." (Film Forum)

Secrets of the Parthenon
80%

Secrets of the Parthenon(en)

2008-01-29

For 25 centuries the Parthenon has been shot at, set on fire, rocked by earthquakes, looted for its sculptures, and disfigured by catastrophic renovations. To save it from collapse, the modern restoration team must uncover the secrets of how the ancient Greeks built this icon of western civilization in less than nine years without anything resembling an architectural plan.

Peter Eisenman: Making Architecture Move
0%

Peter Eisenman: Making Architecture Move(en)

1995-01-01

With the participation of famed architects such as Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind and Zaha Hadid, Peter Eisenman: Making Architecture Move provides an intimate look into the work of the daring and controversial creator. Filmed in the U.S. and Germany, Eisenman takes the viewer through several of his buildings, including the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio, while explaining his upcoming projects such as the Rebstockpark community in Frankfurt and the Max Reinhardt monument in Berlin. His predecessors and contemporaries offer praise and commentary on Eisenman's complex body of work including their own thoughts and theories surrounding his unique style.

Vertical Expectations
0%

Vertical Expectations(en)

2011-05-24

Vertical Expectations is a documentary that explores the nexus between architecture, development and society through an ethnographic analysis of the current building of the Shard.

The Architects
0%

The Architects(en)

2014-06-23

Amie Siegel’s film installations often reveal the hidden narratives behind architecture and design, investigating the mechanisms by which objects, materials, and spaces accrue meaning and value. The Architects examines the processes of architectural creation, using the artist’s signature slow, parallel tracking shots to offer insight into the inner workings of multiple architecture firms, slicing through them laterally like an architect’s section plan... Siegel not only punctures the myth of the singular “master architect” but also poses questions around creative autonomy, the sociopolitics of labor, and the circulation of capital. (Source: MoMA)

The New Apartment
60%

The New Apartment(de)

1930-12-31

A commissioned film for Schweizerischer Werkbund (SWB), Die neue Wohnung was produced for the Basel architectural and interior design exhibition, WOBA, to demonstrate innovative aspects of modern architecture and highlight their differences from the event’s highly conservative approach. Despite its ad campaign roots, Richter's touch is not absent; The surviving version, aimed at a "bourgeois" Swiss public, presents decluttered, functional architecture and decor as superior to the traditional and luxurious "ancient" ways of living.

New Towns for Old
0%

New Towns for Old(en)

1942-01-01

Sheffield stands in as 'Smokedale', an industrial Everytown, in this stirring call for "new schools, new hospitals, new roads, new life", after WWII.

A City Reborn
0%

A City Reborn(en)

1945-01-01

Coventry prepares to rise from the ashes of WWII in this docu-drama written by Dylan Thomas.

Our Beds Are Burning
0%

Our Beds Are Burning(he)

2021-06-08

The film presents fascist ideologies since the beginning of the 20th Century. The actor/presenter of Maurice Barrés argues against foreign labor on the Tel Aviv beach. Mussolini in a gym. Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera in a bookshop. Carl Schmitt at court. Abba Ahimeir and Itamar Ben-Avi in a public library. Gudrun Streiter recalls her love affair with an SA Stormtrooper with Hitler and Himmler on a bench in a park. Three Rabbis from the Yitzhar Settlement on the West Bank: Shapira, Ginzburg and Elitzur have recently ruled that “there is a reason to kill a child if it is clear that it will grow to harm us” (Torat Hamelekh, 2009, pg. 207). They too appear and discuss their interpretation of Divine commands on a park bench.

Bâtir
100%

Bâtir(fr)

1931-01-01

After filming the construction site of the Berlitz Palace (2nd), Pierre Chenal shows us in contrast other contemporary architectural achievements which, using the same technical processes, do not sacrifice the structure of iron and concrete for decoration. A documentary to the glory of the modern designs of Mallet-Stevens and Le Corbusier.

Talking Architecture, City: Hall
75%

Talking Architecture, City: Hall(ko)

2013-10-24

A documentary film about Seoul City Hall Construction. The construction project has a hard going in every way. A city plan, excessive administrative notions, a design and all got mingled up. Can the project sail, yes?

Will It Happen Again?
0%

Will It Happen Again?(en)

1948-05-15

An account of Adolf Hitler's rise and fall, his relationship with Eva Braun and their days of leisure at the Berghof, their Bavarian residence.

O Arquitecto e a Cidade Velha
0%

O Arquitecto e a Cidade Velha(pt)

2004-10-29

A documentary about Álvaro Siza Vieira in Cape Verde and his project to restore the old town of Ribeira Grande, the first city to be built by the Portuguese in Cape Verde on the island of Santiago in 1462.

David Macaulay: Pyramid
0%

David Macaulay: Pyramid(en)

1989-01-04

How did ancient Egyptians build the Great Pyramid at Giza, joining two million blocks of heavy stone with amazing precision? Who were the leaders who built these enormous structures, and what did these tombs signify? Host David Macaulay explores the history, mythology, and religions of Egypt's people, combining live footage and animation. Take a rare look at the mummy of Ramses II and buried treasure in the sacred Valley of the Kings.

Carceller, the Man Who Died Twice
75%

Carceller, the Man Who Died Twice(es)

2021-10-24

The life story of Vicente Miguel Carceller (1890-1940), a Spanish editor committed to freedom who, through his weekly magazine La Traca, connected with the common people while maintaining a dangerous pulse with the powerful.

Kisho Kurokawa From Metabolism to Symbiosis
0%

Kisho Kurokawa From Metabolism to Symbiosis(en)

1993-06-02

A portrait of the internationally acclaimed Japanese architect who employs Buddhist ideas and western modernism to achieve intercultural architecture

REM
0%

REM(en)

2016-09-09

Architecture is often seen from the outside, as an inanimate object represented in still imagery. ‘REM’ exposes the human experience of architecture through dynamic film.

Bauta
60%

Bauta(no)

2018-09-29

Bauta is a short documentary that explores public, monumental buildings in Norway - stone and concrete buildings. By the public they have the desire to be torn down, or are not given particular aesthetic value. But what about when people are out of the buildings and they get to stand for themselves? Bauta provides a new experience of space and architecture.

Ad Astra
0%

Ad Astra(no)

2015-06-12

A visual journey through Norwegian modernist church architecture. A short documentary film that pays tribute to the Norwegian church and post-war postmodernist architects for its daring reform of the 50-70's innovative church building. Raw concrete and cold clean lines in a functionalist style were in line with society's development, but in stark contrast to what the church had previously represented. The film portrays 25 of these churches from all over the country