Johnny the Partisan | |
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Directed by | Guido Chiesa |
Written by |
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Produced by | Domenico Procacci |
Starring |
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Cinematography | Gherardo Gossi |
Music by | Alexander Bălănescu |
Production company | |
Release date |
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Language | Italian |
Il partigiano Johnny, internationally released as Johnny the Partisan, is a 2000 Italian war drama film set in the Second World War and directed by Guido Chiesa. It is based on the novel of the same name by Beppe Fenoglio. [1]
The film entered the competition at the 57th Venice International Film Festival, in which it won the Children and Cinema Award. [2]
Johnny, a university student with a passion for English literature, deserts the Italian Army in Rome after the September 1943 Badoglio Proclamation, and returns home to Alba. He initially takes refuge in a villa in the hills, where he devotes himself to his studies. After the death of a friend, he decides to fight in the war again. He leaves the city and joins the first partisan formation he meets, the "Reds", led by Biondo. He doesn't share their communist ideology, only their desire to fight the Fascists.
Left alone after the group has dispersed under a German attack, he manages to reach a formation of the Badogliani, also called "Blues", or "Autonomous", led by the charismatic North Commander (Piero Balbo, nicknamed Nord). This group is in contact with the Anglo-American allies, who are better equipped and organized. Among them, he meets his dear friend Ettore, and together they participate in the temporary, symbolic occupation of Alba.
Multiple small clashes decimate and disperse their forces, and Ettore is captured and sentenced to death. Johnny finds himself facing the hard winter of 1944 alone again. In the spring, Nord gathers the men and resumes guerrilla activities. The film ends on a still shot of Johnny engaged in combat, perhaps overwhelmed by enemies, followed by the words "Two months after the war was over".
The Italian Social Republic, known prior to December 1943 as the National Republican State of Italy, but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò, was a German puppet state and fascist rump state with limited diplomatic recognition that was created during the latter part of World War II. It existed from the beginning of the German occupation of Italy in September 1943 until the surrender of Axis troops in Italy in May 1945. The German occupation triggered widespread national resistance against it and the Italian Social Republic, leading to the Italian Civil War.
Roberto Farinacci was a leading Italian fascist politician and important member of the National Fascist Party before and during World War II, as well as one of its ardent antisemitic proponents. English historian Christopher Hibbert describes him as "slavishly pro-German".
The Italian Resistance consisted of all the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social Republic during the Second World War in Italy from 1943 to 1945. As a diverse anti-fascist and anti-nazist movement and organisation, the Resistenza opposed Nazi Germany and its Fascist puppet state regime, the Italian Social Republic, which the Germans created following the Nazi German invasion and military occupation of Italy by the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS from 8 September 1943 until 25 April 1945.
The Auxiliary Corps of the Black Shirts' Action Squads, most widely known as the Black Brigades, was one of the Fascist paramilitary groups, organized and run by the Republican Fascist Party operating in the Italian Social Republic, during the final years of World War II, and after the signing of the Italian Armistice in 1943. They were officially led by Alessandro Pavolini, former Minister of Culture of the fascist era during the last years of Fascist Italy.
Giuseppe "Beppe" Fenoglio was an Italian writer, partisan and translator from English. The works of Fenoglio have two main themes: the rural world of the Langhe, where he was born and raised, and the Italian resistance movement, both largely inspired by his own personal experiences in them; equally, the writer has two styles: the chronicle and the epos.
Il Cuore nel Pozzo is a TV movie, produced by state broadcaster RAI, that focuses on the escape of a group of children from Tito's partisans in the aftermath of World War II, as they start an ethnic cleansing of all Italians from Istria and the Julian March. The word "pit" in the movie's title refers to a foiba, indicating foibe massacres.
The Italian Civil War was a civil war in the Kingdom of Italy fought during the Italian campaign of World War II between Italian fascists and Italian partisans and, to a lesser extent, the Italian Co-belligerent Army.
Lega Piemonte, whose complete name is Lega Piemonte per Salvini Premier, is a regionalist political party active in Piedmont. Established in 1987, it was one of the founding "national" sections of Lega Nord (LN) in 1991 and has been the regional section of Lega per Salvini Premier (LSP) in Piedmont since 2020.
The National Republican Army, colloquially called the Army of The North was the army of the Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945 that fought on the side of Nazi Germany during World War II.
Ettore Ovazza was an Italian Jewish banker. He was an early financer of Benito Mussolini, whom he was a personal friend of, and a strong supporter of Italian fascism. He founded the anti-Zionist journal La nostra bandiera. Believing that his position would be restored after the war, Ovazza stayed on after the Germans occupied Italy. Together with his wife and children, shortly after the Fall of Fascism and Mussolini's government during World War II, he was killed near the Swiss border by SS troops in 1943.
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian dictator who founded and led the National Fascist Party (PNF). He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922, until his deposition in 1943, as well as Duce of Italian fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919, until his summary execution in 1945. As a dictator and founder of fascism, Mussolini inspired the international spread of fascist movements during the interwar period.
The National Liberation Committee was a political umbrella organization and the main representative of the Italian resistance movement fighting against the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationist forces of the Italian Social Republic during the German occupation of Italy in the aftermath of the armistice of Cassibile, while simultaneously fighting against Italian fascists during the Italian Civil War. It coordinated and directed the Italian resistance and was subdivided into the Central Committee for National Liberation (CCLN), which was based in Rome, and the later National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy (CLNAI), which was based in Milan. The CNL was a multi-party entity, whose members were united by their anti-fascism.
Enrico Martini Mondovì, 29 January 1911 – Turkey, 19 September 1976) was an Italian soldier and partisan, an Alpini Major, founder of the 1 Group Alpine Divisions in the Italian Resistance, and a recipient of the Gold Medal of Military Valor.
The Hunchback of Rome is a 1960 Italian crime-drama film directed by Carlo Lizzani. It is loosely based on the real life events of Giuseppe Albano, an Italian partisan that was involved in the Roman Resistance against German occupation between 1943 and 1945.
The Seven Cervi Brothers is a 1968 Italian drama film directed by Gianni Puccini. The film recounts the last days of life during the resistance of the anti-fascist Cervi Brothers. The director Puccini died a few months after the end of production. The film was long blocked by the Italian censorship.
The Brigate Garibaldi or Garibaldi Brigades were partisan units aligned with the Italian Communist Party active in the armed resistance against both German and Italian fascist forces during World War II.
Vincenzo Costa was an Italian Fascist politician and soldier, the last federal secretary of the Fascist Party of Milan.
Francesco Colombo was an Italian Fascist soldier and policeman, founder and leader of the Legione Autonoma Mobile "Ettore Muti", an anti-partisan unit of the Italian Social Republic infamous for its atrocities.
Piero Balbo was an Italian Resistance leader during World War II.
Ettore Enzo Fimiani Troilo was an Italian Resistance leader during World War II.