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“The Producers” by Mel Brooks at Cinema Ritrovato 2018
What looks exceeding, is meant to be exceeding, theatrical and hysterical. Even Hula, as the best bimbo-girl/Stepford wife secretary fits the role perfectly as the most un-helpful secretary ever seen. All in the name of non-functionality, the result ends up being an outstanding play. Not of “so bad it’s good” kind, it’s just great. So great that later on, the movie was adapted in Broadway in the format of a play into a play, directed by Susan Stroman. In today’s climate, it is hard to make this not political. Satire has two faces, one that deprives the object of its power, one that on the long run puts our guards down and leads do an underestimation of the object, in this case hiding the risk held by terms such as “Nazism” and “nationalism” when history repeats itself.