“The Freemasons are useful to the regime”:
An analysis of the representations of Freemasonry in
cinema and its utility on reinforcing or criticizing the establishment
“Los Masones son útiles al régimen”:
Un análisis de las representaciones de la Francmasonería en el cine y
su utilización para reforzar o criticar el orden establecido
Felipe Côrte Real de Camargo
Universidad de
Bristol, Reino Unido
Recepción: 7 de noviembre
de 2018/Aceptación: 15 de noviembre de 2018.
doi: https://doi.org/10.15517/rehmlac.v10i2.34724
Keywords
cinema; freemasonry; history; representations; state of exception.
Palabras clave
cine; masonería; historia; representaciones; estado
de excepción.
Abstract
This
article addresses the relations between the language of cinema and some
representations that this media may show on Freemasonry. The three chosen
movies deserve attention for their representativeness. Freemasonry has become a
recurrent theme in historical studies and combined with this phenomenon the
Fraternity has been going through a greater public exposure. This public image
is formed, mainly, by works of fiction, and through its leading vehicle, the
cinema. On analysing in three movies a commonality in their approach is sought
for, between images presented –about
and by– Freemasonry in this social product of cinema.
Resumen
Este artículo trata las relaciones entre el lenguaje
del cine y algunas representaciones que este medio puede mostrar sobre la
Francmasonería. Las tres películas elegidas merecen atención por su
representatividad. La Francmasonería se ha convertido en una temática
recurrente en los estudios históricos, y estos combinados con el fenómeno de la
gran exposición que la Fraternidad está teniendo. Esta imagen pública está
formada, principalmente, por obras de ficción, siendo el cine su principal
vehículo. Al analizar estas tres películas, se pretende hacer una aproximación
entre las imágenes presentadas sobre la Francmasonería en este producto social
que es el cine.
Cinema
and History
Far
from being a new intersection, the interface, or interpenetration, between
cinema and history is as old as the seventh art. In 1898, a Polish pioneer of
cinematography, Bolesław Matuzewski, wrote an essay called “Une nouvelle source de l’histoire: création
d’un depot de cinematographie historique”, in which he exposes his theory
that cinema, for being animated photography, would be capable of offering a
truthful testimony of facts. By doing so, cinema would also control oral
testimony, thus enabling an image bank of the important facts, or in
Matuzewski’s words “a deposit of historical cinematography”.
We
know that the project of the Polish author had not materialised in the way he
predicted, nevertheless, besides the question on cinema/images and the
apprehension of “real”, the arrival of images changed, in an indelible way, the
understanding of the historical process. This happened not just because of its
documental value, like some authors predicted, but also for its aesthetical
value and other variables (i.e. representation, reception, narrative, politics)
which concern the field of historical studies.
Freemasonry
The
fraternity that we recognised as Freemasonry, would be better off categorised
as a practice since it doesn`t have a canonical form[1].
Therefore, the field of research dedicated to this topic has been heading
towards a broad definition, the one of Freemasonries, giving space and a proper
framework to this diverse phenomenon. Briefing, Freemasonry is a sociability with
fraternal structure that have in its pillars the values of liberty, fraternity
and relief. Being an initiatic order, it presents its teachings through
morality plays and grades these learnings in a degree system.
Although
Freemasonry searches to link its origins to events previous to their actual
formation in the 17th century, its true beginning is, temporally,
explicit[2].
It is in mid-17th century that we have the first registers of the
process of acceptance of people strange to the mason`s craft[3] in
the guilds. These men, called “accepted”, were from different trades, or even
noblemen, but in its majority were merchants and shop keepers, the newly born
“middling sort”[4].
Hobsbawm,
in his article on proletarian’s rituals, highlights that the model which gave
birth to Freemasonry would become one of the most copied among the modes of
sociability of the working class[5].
The decline of the trading guilds and the initiation of members alien to the
guilds mark the beginning of the modern Freemasonry. Masonic historiography
classifies the practice and period linked to the guilds as “operative masonry”
and the one consisting of “accepted” masons only as “speculative freemasonry”.
This classification refers to the nature of the work, the former manual,
material work, and the latter symbolic, intellectual.
The
end of the 18th century and the whole 19th century are crucial
periods for the construction of contemporary Freemasonry. Several movements
wielded a strong influence on Freemasonry and were, in some way, a product of
its impact, the Illuminist philosophy, in its French aspect as much as in the
German Aufklärung, the French
Revolution, the codification of Spiritism, the Rosicrucian and Cabalistic
mysticism, aside from the 19th century occult revival. All of them
left a strong imprint, branding Freemasonry with its compelling
characteristics: syncretism[6].
Although
scrutinization of the early days of Freemasonry is a hard task, specially its
transition from operative to speculative, there is a foundational landmark that
is almost undisputed: the establishment of the Grand Lodge of London and
Westminster, in 1717, or 1721, according to doubts casted by recent scholarship[7].Since
the 19th century the, then, United Grand Lodge of England is
regarded as the “mother lodge of the world”[8],
acting as an umpire for masonic regularity.
After
the 17th century, Freemasonry spread around the world. Its models of
ritual and sociability were vastly copied by a succession of friendly and
fraternal societies, trade unions and syndicates. To build a “general history”
of Freemasonry requires a systematization of thousands of works that had been
produced by both historians and amateurs. The multiplicity of this narratives
led us to the concept of Freemasonries, but at the same time it doesn’t make
Freemasonry an impossible topic, or a hermetic one for that matter.
Anti-Freemasonry
There
is a major tendency nowadays to call anti-Freemasonry every article, opinion or
questioning with some kind of opposition to the Order. Nevertheless, one must
differentiate what is criticism to Freemasonry as such, being regarding its
structure, philosophy and/or organization and what is criticism derived from
prejudice or distortions propagated since the 17th Century, that is
to say, since the structuring period of modern Freemasonry.
Several
are the examples and stories on anti-Freemasonry, for a brief and systematic
analysis, I will promote a synthesis. Since Freemasonry was systematized in
England, anti-Freemasonry was its inevitable by-product. The nuances and
motivations of the discourses against Freemasonry acquired vigour and suffered
mutations, what made their permanence possible until today. Among anti-Masonic
discourse it is possible to identify three main currents that gave birth to the
others. Masonic author João Ivo Girardi schematized it in a very didactic way:
Three successive themes supported the anti-Masonry
of the 19th Century: a) the
Anglophobe theme: According to its defenders, Freemasonry would be only a
cover-up for the English Intelligence Service; b) the anti-Semite theme: Freemasons would be just puppets of the
Jews. Jewish high finance, mainly the Rothschild, would be hidden behind
Freemasonry. c) the Luciferian theme: the
true meaning of Freemasonry would be the hidden demoniac activity in Lodge[9].
Thus,
anti-Masonry has been one of the main fuels to fan the flames of the
“conspiracy theories”. However, the spread “masonic secret” helped to feed the
imagination of those nurturing a relation of love, hate or curiosity with the
Fraternity. Hence, Freemasonry became a key element in the puzzle of the
conspiracy theories that, given its nature, are all self-fulfilling prophecies.
Cinema
and Freemasonry
Freemasonry
has been a recurrent theme in cinema, explicitly, as part of the context or as
a back-story. For example, in the movie El
Angel Exterminador (Buñuel, 1962); among a surrealistic plot, that
criticizes indelibly the bourgeoisie, there are several subtle Masonic
references, differently, the movie From
Hell (Hughes, 2001), uses Freemasonry as a key piece of the plot. It must
be remembered that an always updated list of movies related, in any level, with
Freemasonry, can be found at the website of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia
and Yukon.
Yet
in the first years of cinema as an entertainment, Freemasonry was the subject
of one of Bobby Bumps’ adventures. Bobby Bumps was the main character of a
series of animations produced by Bray Productions, between 1915 and 1925. Such
animations were released by Paramount Pictures and were part of the Paramount
Package, a bundle of short movies and animations that were screened in theatres
previously to the movies. As defined by Kristian Moen “Focusing on a rambunctious young boy, Bobby Bumps, the films
typically presented a series of humorous situations that resulted from his
playful schemes and general unruliness”[10].
In
the animation Bobby Bumps starts a lodge
(Hurd, 1916), the main character calls his neighbour to be part of his “masonic
lodge”. Notably, there is no masonic lodge at all, being Bobby Bumps’ objective
is only to prank his friend, like they were part of a ritual of initiation. For
being the theme of a cartoon, a mass entertainment, remains clear that
Freemasonry was not an obscure topic for the American society in the 1910s.
Bobby
Bump marks the debut of Freemasonry in cinema, since then, the Craft has been
an habituée of the seventh art. As
formulated by Michèle Lagny, historians, when in front a movie archive, may
question themselves about which movies to prioritize since two main aspects
will be considered: the aesthetical value and their value as a testimony[11].
However, in the movies addressed in this article we have both aspects, since
not just the analysis of its production context offers elements that attest its
strength as testimony, but also its aesthetical aspects present crucial data
about the topic to be focused on this article.
The
feature that these movies have in common, beside the fact that they touch the
thematic of “Freemasonry”, is that they were produced within a state of
exception[12]
and extreme political polarization. Thus, I will try to understand how the
reception, and the further production, of a given representation of Freemasonry
took place in these three different, although with their similarities,
contexts. Firstly, as a representation aiming to transform the fraternity in a
pariah willing to destroy society, secondly, as a space for the development of desires
for independence, but that can be dangerous, and thirdly, as showing the
banality and servility of an order that upkeeps the status quo, and that even
though its swallowed by it.
It
is important to highlight that the term “representation” is being used in
accordance to the understanding of Moscovici and his view deriving out of
social psychology, in which the author recognises the two main functions of the
representations, which are:
a) In
the first place, they conventionalize the
objects, people or facts that they meet. They give it a definitive form,
localize it in a determined category, and gradually set it as a model of a
determined type, distinct and shared by a group of people. All the new elements
join this model and synthetize themselves in it[13].
b) In
second place, representations are prescriptive,
that is to say, they impose themselves on us with an indescribable force. This
force is a combination of a structure that is present even before we start to
think, and of a tradition that decrees what must be thought[14].
Thus,
I will try to understand in which way these conventions on what Freemasonry is,
occurred. Also, in which way these conventions inscribe themselves in society,
synthetizing views on the Order, and how these movies prescribed ways to
perceive that social phenomenon, that is Freemasonry, in their respective
societies.
Les Forces Occultes (1943) – Anti-Freemasonry as Nazi propaganda
The
movie “Les Forces Occultes” is a French production from the period known as Vichy
France (Régime de Vichy).
Nevertheless, there is a habit of crediting all the French political actions of
this period to the Nazi occupation, although it was a prime mover, it is
important to underline that some segments of collaborationists were not a mere
consequence of threaten. The French State (État
Français), even though a puppet government of the Nazis, gave way to the
current ideology, namely the ones of sectarian religious values with an
authoritarian mindset. This blend was translated into the trinomial Work,
Family, Homeland (Travail, Famille,
Patrie), and, important to this article, it also rekindled anti-Freemasonry
and anti-Semitism, or even “anti-Cosmopolitism” as suggested by Jean-Robert
Ragache, former Grand Master of the Grand
Orient de France[15].
The
half-length film, director by Jean Mammy, under the alias of Paul Riche, it’s a
genuine expression of the Nazi aesthetics. Using the same narrative style, the
movie also dips the same camera[16]
effects already seen in classics of the Nazi cinema as “Der Triumph des Willens” (Triumph of the Will, 1935), “Jude Suss” (1940) and “Der Ewige Jude” (The Eternal Jew, 1940).
Freemasonry
was officially banned from the French territory since August 13th 1940, due to a law prohibiting the operation of “secret
societies”, undoubtedly the aim of such legislation was the Craft and its most
important bodies[17]
in France, the Grand Orient de France and
the Grande Loge de France. An example
of this focus in the bigger bodies is that only in the beginning of 1941,
smaller obediences, mixed and feminine, were hit by the decrees declaring their
constitutions null. Immediately, masonic archives fell in hands of Nazis and
French collaborationists; massive police inquiries were undertaking, lists with
names of French freemasons were published in the newspapers, and around three
thousand people lost their jobs for being members of the Order.
More
than the paranoia of the Judeo-masonic-communist complot, Nazis and
collaborationists feared that the capillarity of Freemasonry would fit up the
French resistance, what actually ended up happening, increasing its efficiency.
Freemasons were used to silence and secrecy, they recognized each other
discreetly and among its members there were from postmen to industrialists.
These improbable relations between these men caused the Vichy government to
establish a task force to solve this puzzle.
It
is in this context that the Propaganda-Abteilung
Frankreich (Department of Propaganda in France) commissioned the director,
and mason, Jean Mammy to film “Les Forces
Occultes”, released in 1943. The movie was a mix of the confiscated masonic
archives, when it came to parts of the ritual and regalia, to the Nazi
paranoia, regarding the political action and character of its members. However,
it is not the aim of this article to verify what is true, or accurate in the
movie, and what it is not.
Jean-Marques
Rivière, a well-known anti-Masonic, anti-Communist, and anti-Semite
pamphleteer, wrote the script and in the movie
première declared that it was “a political and revolutionary act”. The plot
tells the story of a French congressman (Pierre Avenel) that, as can be noticed
in the initial sequence of the movie, in which he is giving a speech at the
French National Assembly, is an organic intellectual of the national-socialist
ideology. Thus, insulting all the parties and its members, accusing them to
throw France in a crisis, and to put the country on the brick of war,
congressman Avenel claims that this “strategy” was benefiting both, left and
right, and doing so builds to the public an image of integrity beyond
suspicion.
The
conspiracy plot unravels a clear division of good against evil, honest fighting
dishonesty, since the beginning of the movie. Notwithstanding, the plot, in
this case, is a backdrop to the real movie decoy: the first recorded
re-enactment of a masonic ritual. Some pieces of divulgation would even
highlight that the rituals used were “in accordance with the ones used by the
Grand Orient of France”.
(Above) The poster announced, “The
mysteries of Freemasonry unveiled for the first time on the screen” (Below)The lodge gets prepared to receive
Avenel
As
soon as Avenel is initiated on Freemasonry, he starts to be asked shady favours
by his now brothers, in name of fraternity. Moreover, the movie refers to some
famous scandals of the Third Republic, the period between 1870 and 1940 in
France, linking them to different freemasons asking Avenel for aid in their
private affairs. Such scandals are referred using the covers of newspapers,
including “L’Anti-Maçon”, directed by Leo Taxil[18],
one of the most famous propagandists against Freemasonry.
Consequently,
Avenel decides to leave the lodge after realizing that France’s entrance in the
war against Germany (the Second World War) was a Judeo-Masonic-Communist
complot. Recurring to a narrative element that it is perceivable in the other
movies analysed in this article, the final part of the movie, leading to Avenel
resignation, shows an open discussion about politics inside the lodge –
something appalling for any Masonic ritual. Nevertheless, this scenario, i.e.
Freemasons orchestrating political moves in lodge, is appealing to the
narrative that Freemasonry is, primarily, an obscure association. Avenel’s
decision of leaving the lodge is met with disapproval, and finally to an attack
that ends up his life, not after a moving speech about the dangerous of
Freemasonry, to his wife, on his death bed at the hospital.
The
final scene shows the triumph of evil against good. The Orator of the lodge,
that through the whole movie is portraited as an evil character, is shown
laughing, in his masonic regalia, with the Globe in flames in front of him.
Suggestively, the expression “The End” (Fin)
is presented within a star of David, alluding to the Jewish conspiracy.
The
final image, showing the judeo-masonic victory, hence the triumph of evil.
Important
to realize, that this film has the same narrative structure of propaganda as
defined by F. Chevassu in the Journal Image
et Son (Sound and Image):
1.
Emotional reaction, defeat, 2. To state the obvious: France was not prepared
for war, 3. Projection of the spectator in the character: Pierre Avenel,
honest, blazing patriot who refutes that shameful war, 4. The character, hence
the spectator, victim of scapegoats, 5. The instinctive condemnation of those
scapegoats[19].
Obviously,
the use of the movie “Les Forces
Occultes” as an anti-Freemasonry, anti-Semitic or anti-Communist, did not
stop with the Vichy France. The movie, available online, counts hundreds of
thousands of accesses, and the comments left by users show that the work of
Mammy still echoes as a formative, or a reinforcement, of a certain image of
Freemasonry for most people.
Independência ou Morte (1972) – Freemasonry
as part of the “Brazilian Miracle”[20]
The
movie Independência ou Morte (Independency
or Death), took to the big screen the official and obliging version of the
proclamation of the Brazilian independence, in the years of its 150thanninversary.
It also became a convergence point of several different historical aspects,
making it an important work for Brazilian cinema. Directed by Carlos Coimbra,
seasoned director and main responsible for the “Cangaço Aesthetics”[21]in
Brazilian cinema, was the last great production of Cinedistri, producer and
distributor of national movies, created in 1949 by Osvaldo Massiani.
Cinedistri
was responsible for several historical movies in Brazilian cinema, including O Pagador de Promessas (1962) and Lampião, o Rei do Cangaço (1964), the
latter also directed by Carlos Coimbra. Such movies initiated the third wave of
the production company, or its golden age, when it installed its
headquarters in São Paulo in the quarter known as “boca do lixo”[22].
The
production of Independência ou Morte
closed this so-called golden age and, besides the investment, the aesthetical
results were not satisfactory, despite reached box office records in Brazil,
with 2.957.083 spectators[23]. Although
well-known for most Brazilians, the plot tells, in a didactic way, the epopee
of one single character D. Pedro de Alcântara, assisted by his mentor, José
Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva, in the hard path of declaring the Brazilian
independence. The story develops during the time in which D. Pedro was the
regent prince after the return of the Portuguese royal family to Portugal[24],and
a series of facts end up leading the disconnection of Brazil from that kingdom.
The
tangled story of Brazilian independence was analysed by a succession of researchers
who demonstrated the diversity and plurality of forces involved in the process[25].
Nonetheless, the official narrative of the military government, thought through
newly born school topics life “moral and civic education”, sought for a story
without political disputes, focusing on personal struggles, and reverberating
the official story that would fit like a glove in the propaganda machine of the
General Médici government:
[…] it was not limited to repression. It
[the propaganda machine] distinguished clearly between a significant, but
minoritarian, branch of society, opposed to the regime, and the herd living
everyday life with some hope in those years of economic prosperity. The
repression ended up with the first sector, while the propaganda was charged to,
at least, neutralize, the second[26].
Thus,
it was also in the Grande Oriente do
Brasil[27]
best interests to connect its image to the military government. This masonic
body was living a period of intense internal struggle for power, and that through
its majoritarian ward was trying to purge members who manifested traces of
plurality in their political mindset, common in the political order prior to
1964. Given the political national atmosphere, opinions on matters of politics
were becoming more uniform and people in power inside Freemasonry were using
well the conveniences of that moment[28].
The
Grande Oriente do Brasil ceded the
main temple in its principal building, the Palácio
do Lavradio, besides regalia (aprons, jewels and sashes), for the filming
of the Masonic meetings, an unusual attitude for the hitherto reserved
Brazilian Freemasonry. However, to be pictured as heroes of Brazilian
independence would be a great opportunity to figure with a good image in front
of the public, and at the same time, to reinforce the image of collaboration
with the military regime. In the light of these aspects, one dialogue becomes
illustrative of the ambiguous role of Freemasonry in Brazilian history. The
dialogue happens between D. Pedro, regent prince, and Friar Habner, one of his
counsellors
Friar
Habner: Do you know that the Masonic
lodge which Dom João VI had closed have reopened?
D.
Pedro: All the citizens of this country
are free in their actions Friar Habner.
Friar
Habner: Since they don’t circumvent the
principles of the regime your highness!
D.
Pedro: The Freemasons are useful to the
regime.
Friar Habner: They are dangerous, insidious, they act in the
shadows…
Thenceforth,
three sequences where Freemasonry appears are interspersed. In the first one,
right after the above dialogue, there is a re-enactment of what would have been
the extraordinary (specially convened) session of the Masonic lodge Comércio e Artes. Truly, this Masonic
lodge is the one in which the then regent prince was initiated, in 2nd
August 1822. In that scene, the Orator[29],
Joaquim Gonçalves Ledo[30],
pumps the Freemasons up for standing against the new exigences of the
Portuguese Parliament. Right after, José Bonifácio, Dom Pedro’s mentor is shown
protesting against the return of the prince to Portugal, as commanded by the
Metropolitan Parliament, and then another Freemason supporting the same idea,
still inside the Masonic meeting.
(Above) The Masonic meetings, filmed
inside the Main Temple, helped the movie aesthetically, also giving it
historical accuracy, nevertheless, it also reinforced the connection of
Brazilian Freemasonry with the celebrations of the 150th Anniversary
of the independence and the military government.
Next,
there is a sequence of special importance, a group of Freemasons, led by
Gonçalves Ledo, appears plotting to overthrow José Bonifácio from the chair of
Grand Master. Additionally, they plan to offer to Dom Pedro, the title of “Perpetual
Defensor and Protector of Brazil”, as well as initiating him in Freemasonry in
order to appoint him as Grand Master afterwards. Is in this moment that occurs,
without an explicit narrative, the construction of an ambiguous role for the
masonic group. Fortwith, Dom Pedro emerge inside a Masonic lodge, being
invested as Grand Master by Gonçalves Ledo.
Under
those circumstances, it is significative that the next scene is the peak of the
movie, the one in which Dom Pedro declares Brazilian independence. This scene
as all the historical moments, like the coronation, are portrayed as the
classic canvasses painted, mainly, by the painter Pedro Américo. It is worth
saying that Américo painted this canvas (Independence or Death), decades after
the event, being presented in 1888 - one year before the proclamation of the
Brazilian republic - following a classic composition method and far from
historical accuracy regarding characters and clothes. In the picture, and hence
the movie, Dom Pedro declares independence on the banks of Ipiranga river, in a
gala uniform, mounted in a white horse. It must be remembered that Dom Pedro
was invested as Grand Master of the Grande
Oriente Brasílico (do Brasil) after the declaration of independence and not
before as the movie implies[31].
After
the “cry of Ipiranga” scene, in the remaining 60 minutes of the movie, the
subject of Freemasonry does not show up again. More than a silence, or a flawed
script, the gap is backed by history. Dom Pedro, after taking his oath as Grand
Master, suspended the meetings of the Grande
Oriente Brasílico and its lodges in 1822; the Masonic body would come back
to life as Grande Oriente do Brasil only
in 1831.
Although
it may not have been the intention of the director Carlos Coimbra, the movie Independência ou Morte was perfectly
suited to the propaganda machine of Brazilian military dictatorship. The
celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the independence was a
crucial moment of the political program of the General Médici government, as
explained by historian Daniel Aarão Reis:
It was the “golden years”, of continuous
progress, of broadening horizons and patriotic celebration, that reached its
peak between 1970 and 1972, when the nation celebrated the third world title in
the football world cup and celebrated the 150th anniversary of its
independence, with one more international footballing title[32].
Un
Borghese Piccolo Piccolo (1977) – The mafia of the mediocre
To
interpret the nineteen seventies in Italy is a hard task to any historian.
Beyond the question if it was a state of exception, it is undeniable the
existing tension in that country during what Pierre Milza called “leaden years”[33].
The action of the red brigades was jumbled with a political regime that created
a series of “special laws” to judge political crimes, as pointed out by Giorgio
Agamben[34].
Denying the climate of political dispute, or even civil war, Italy searched a
normality that turned out inciting even more tension between the two political
horizons that presented itself at the time.
In
the meantime, Italian Freemasonry also hinged in two currents, basically
conservatives and liberals. It is important to realize that Italy was the
cradle of the Carbonaria or
“florestal Freemasonry”, that different of its co-sister, Freemasonry, was
built with explicit political purposes in the 18th century.
Nevertheless, in the 1970s, regular Freemasonry, in its majority, went down the
political conservatism, and as well-known, a minority in the extreme right
produced scandals that would burst in the following decade, like the one of the
Masonic lodge Propaganda Due, the
famous P2[35].
It
is in this context that director Mario Monicelli adapts the work of Vicenzo Cerami,
Un Borghese Piccolo Piccolo, making
of it a caustic portrait of the Italian petty bourgeoisie in its higher
expression in the seventies: the public servants. The movie tells the story of
Giovanni Vivaldi[36],
a subservient civil servant of an Italian Social Security Institute. Vivaldi
has an adoration for his boss, Dr. Spazioni[37], and
nurtures an equal esteem for his only child, an unremarkable boy who manages to
graduate, with passable marks, as an accountant. In a tragicomic way, both
sides of Giovani Vivaldi`s bourgeoise behaviour starts to show, on one hand the
pettiness, through his habit of bowing down when in the presence of any
superior, on the other hand a darker side, unstable, insulting anyone who puts
itself in front of him in traffic, for instance.
One
of Vivaldi’s goals in life is to put his soon, the newly graduated accountant,
in the same social security institute in which he works. However, to do so, the
boy needs to be approved in the dreaded public tender. Vivaldi seeks a way to
put his son into the institute without the necessity of being approved in the
public tender, and for that asks his beloved boss, Dr. Spazioni, who tells him
that there is no other way, that times had changed, and that now everyone must
go through the public selection. Before Vivaldi’s insistence, Dr. Spazioni lets
him know that there is a way of easing things, and at this point he asks “What do you know about Freemasonry?”
Henceforth,
a series of hilarious events take place, in which Giovanni Vivaldi instruct
himself, through booklets, on Freemasonry. In due time, he goes to his
initiation, but first we testify the conflict present in his mind, proving that
even after the booklets, Freemasonry was still a slippery slope within his (and
the traditional society) values. Before leaving the house, heading to the
ceremony, Vivaldi goes to the bathroom, sits on the toilet and talks to God,
asking for forgiveness, and explaining he was doing that “just because of his
son”.
(Above) Before going to his initiation,
Giovanni Vivaldi goes to the bathroom to ask God for forgiveness.
After
his funny initiation, with some “Bobby Bumps” moments, Giovanni Vivaldi is
received by his “mentor”, Dr. Spazioni, that gives a memorable welcome speech
in which, in a metalinguistic way, there is the very denial of the propelled
masonic equality:
Dr. Spazioni: For the Freemasonry, every weak sentiment is cowardice. Every free
will is a crime, remember that, Brother Mason Apprentice. The symbol of the
compass is clear, it draws a circle. You're now the smallest circle. But even
you will become great, little by little. This doesn't mean you're inferior, no!
You're always a circle, as drawn by the compass. Thus, you're a brother, one
like us. In this sense, Freemasonry is egalitarian. The great ones have great
rights, you have them on a smaller scale. But those rights are yours! Is that
clear? In short brother, you are welcome among us.
Further,
Dr. Spazioni gives Vivaldi the answer key to the test that his son will take.
Mario, Vivaldi’s son, decorates the answers with extreme difficulty, giving an
illustration of his obtuseness. Nevertheless, their petite bourgeoisie lives would soon be crossed, literally and
figuratively, by Italian’s troubled political and social scene that occurred
from the late sixties until the early eighties, a period known as anni di piombo (the led years). On their
way to the test, they are crossed by bank robbers, a stray bullet hits Mario on
the head, who dies instantly. Forthwith, Giovanni Vivaldi stops being
portraited as a quiet bourgeois to outlet his aggressiveness.
(Above) Vivaldi is recaptioned by Dr. Spazioni.
This
major setback that leads us to the climax, portrays Freemasonry as being one
more palliative before an unequal society, something that Louis Althusser would
call “an ideological states’ apparatus”.
Despite his intentions when initiated, Vivaldi does not achieve any
other privilege for being a Freemason. Emblematic is the scene in which he asks
to a brother of his masonic lodge, who is responsible for the cemetery, to rush
the burial of his son in a proper grave. Meanwhile, the corpse of his son
awaits among many others, in a sort of deposit that director Monicelli depicts
in great resemblance to Dante’s purgatory.
The
Freemason who administrates the queue informs that there is nothing that he can
do since there is “more important” people to push in the waiting list,
cardinals, deputies, ministers, etc. Facing that news, Vivaldi and the other
mason make what is supposed to be a masonic sign to each other with an air of
quiet desperation. Thus, it was shown that the masonic fraternity is maybe
unachievable in a system that overlaps privileges.
Monicelli’s
movie shows maybe the most interesting, and maybe realistic, face of
Freemasonry in the 1970s, and maybe suitable for many Freemasonries today. In
other words, the movie depicts Freemasonry as a structure capable of soften the
middle class so that they maintain the status quo, oddly using an institution
that in the Italian past fought against oppression and inequality. Ultimately,
Giovanni Vivaldi is the archetypical bourgeois, offering a comic vision of the
tragic dream of fraternity and belonging facing a capitalistic society in the
twentieth century.
Conclusion
More
than reflect the presence of Freemasonry within society, these representations
of the Craft in cinema built, and build, the perceptions that the public, and
even Freemasons, have of Freemasonry. Historians, Freemasons and aficionados
have lists and lists about movies in which Freemasonry is the theme, the back
story or movies in which the fraternity is not more than mentioned.
The
aim here was to briefly analyse three movies in which Freemasonry was serving
some kind of purpose in states of exception. In the first one, Les Forces Occultes, Freemasonry is portraited
as one element of the Jewish-communist conspiracy; the movie conveys the idea
of a mischievous fraternity which recruits people to transform them in puppets
of a bigger plan. It suited perfectly the Nazi propaganda machine and its
narrative of a world divided between good and evil.
The
second, Independência ou Morte, was
tailor made for the 150th anniversary of Brazilian independency
occurred during the most violent period of the Brazilian military dictatorship
that took place between 1964 and 1985. The movie reflects the dubious attitude
of the regime towards Freemasonry, at the same time that the Freemasons would
get closer to the regime, giving it support through manifestos endorsing the
military and decorations to its main figures,[38]
the regime was watching closely the masonic activities with apprehension as the
repression archives show us.
Un Borghese piccolo
piccolo, by its turn, represents the inverse of
the previous ones. Instead of serving some purpose of the established regime, it
promotes its very critics. The character of Giovanni Vivaldi embodied the
Italian society in a comic way and exposes the inconsistences of Freemasonry
with the crudeness of social criticism. It is worth to mention that Mario
Monicelli was not a newcomer; seasoned director and screenwriter, he managed to
portray Freemasonry as “the mafia of the mediocre”[39],
even before this epithet arise in England during the nineteen eighties.
Overall,
it can be affirmed that more than a threat or guardians of any political
structure, the Freemasons are useful to regimes, mainly states of exception;
whether supporting it, or making a nice scapegoat, or even posing an imagined
danger for what one holds sacred. The magic of cinema helped, and still helps,
to enhance those feelings by portraying Freemasonry in the most convenient apparel
for the occasion, intentionally with a clear purpose or unintentionally,
reverberating preconceived notions.
However,
it is undeniable that the popularised imagery related to Freemasonry is mostly
derived from movies and series, at least for the generation interval between baby boomers and millennials. More than mere curiosity, these productions shaped the
public image of Freemasonry in such a way that this image produced on screen
over time became more truthful than any masonic attempt to “come out”. One of
these attempts, the documentary “Inside the Freemasons” reached a broader
audience by showing the backstage of English Freemasonry and its prosaic
existence. The question opened to future historians, that will have the
privilege of hindsight, is to evaluate if the - sometime tedious - reality,
make its way over the colourful and convenient conspiracy theories.
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*A
previous version of this article was presented in the “XIV Encontro Estadual de
História da ANPUH-SC” in the thematic symposium “Modernities: History,
Languages and Fiction”, in August 2014.
[1]Although
Modern Freemasonry, or the Grand Lodge system, had its start fairly dated and
located, the variations and diversity of masonic rituals are evident. Its
structure show patterns, as analysed by Snoek (2006, 87-108), but its diffusion
caused innumerable variations, hence unsuitable to establish a canon.
[2] David Stevenson, The Origins of Freemasonry Scotland's
Century, 1590–1710 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1990).
[3] I am
referring here to the actual trade of stone worker.
[4] George Rudé,
Hanoverian
London 1714-1808 (London: Secker
& Warburg, 1971).
[5] Eric J. Hobsbawm, Mundos do Trabalho
(Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 2000).
[6]Despite
contemporary revival of views of syncretism as a “downgrade”, I understand the
phenomenon in a historically natural light, as in Diderot’s entry in the Enciclopédie were he defines syncretism
as a process of concordance of eclectic sources, with all its “drawbacks”.
[7]Andrew
Prescott and Susan Sommers, “Searching for the
apple tree: revisiting the earliest years of organised English freemasonry”. In
Reflections on Three Hundred Years of Freemasonry: Papers from the
QC Tercentenary Conference edited by John Wade (London: Lewis Masonic, 2017).
[8]James W.
Daniel, “UGLE External Relations 1950-2000: policy and practice”, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum 117 (2005):
1- 47.
[9] João
Ivo Girardi. Do meio dia à meia noite:
vade-mécum maçônico (Blumenau: Nova letra Gráfica e Editora, 2006), 30.
[10] Kristian
Moen, “Imagination and Natural Movement: The Bray Studios and the “Invention”
of Animated Film. In Film History 27,
no. 4 (2015), 135.
[11] René Gardies org., Compreender o
Cinema e as Imagens (Lisboa: Edições Texto & Grafia, 2007).
[12]Concept
developed by Carl Schmitt and expanded by Giorgio Agamben homonymous book. For
Schmitt’s legal theory, the state of exception is an ability within sovereignty
to suspend the rule of law in the name of an alleged greater good or public
order. Agamben refers to it as a paradigm of government, a strategy to rule,
and outrule enemies.
[13] Serge
Moscovici. Representações Sociais:
Investigações em Psicologia Social (Petrópolis: Vozes, 2009), 34.
[14] Moscovici,
“Representações Sociais”, 36.
[15]A propos de Forces Occultes. Director: René
Le Moal. Production: Les éditions Véga. 16 min e 26 seg. Available
in http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x81q5t_forces-occultes-le-complot-judeo-ma_news
[16]
Director and screenwriter Jean-Patrick Lebel used the term camera which
encompass the whole process from the filming to the final edition. For its
conceptual simplicity, I will take the same stance.
[17] Masonic
bodies, or obediences, are administrative entities that group three or more
lodges. Every Masonic lodge is affiliated to a body, or obedience.
[18] One of
the pseudonyms of Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand Pagès (1854-1907),
journalist and writer, famous for his anti-Ecclesiastic and anti-Masonic
writings.
[19] Chevassu, F. “Forces Occultes”. Image
et Son: La Revue do Cinema. Paris: Union Française des Oeuvres Laïques
d'Éducation par l'Image et par le Son, numero 188 (novembre, 1965), 36.
[20]The
“Brazilian Miracle” is the term used to refer to a period of notable economic
growth, exceptional repression and torture, and of histrionic patriotism
encouraged by the military government, from 1969 to 1973.
[21] The
“Cangaço Aesthetics” is part of a major Braziilian movement in film called
“Cinema Novo” (New Cinema), occurred mainly during the 1960s. Cangaço was a
form of “Social Banditry” and had very particular aesthetic and political
features, which led to be recovered by Brazilian artists and intellectuals as a
form of redemption of the marginalised part of Brazilian history.
[22] Fernão
Ramos; Luís Felipe Miranda. Enciclopédia
do Cinema Brasileiro (São Paulo: Editora do Senac, 2004), 132-133.
[23] Antônio
Leão da Silva Neto. Dicionário de Filmes
Brasileiros (São Paulo: Ed. do Autor, 2002).
[24] Fleeing
from the Peninsular War, the Portuguese royal family transported the Court to
Brazil in 1808, coming back to Portugal in 1821 by pressure of the Portuguese Liberal
Revolution.
[25] Charles
Ralph Boxer, A idade de ouro do
Brasil: dores de crescimento de uma sociedade colonial (São Paulo:
Companhia Editora Nacional, 1963); Jorge Caldeira org., José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva (Coleção “Formadores do Brasil”
(São Paulo: Editora 34, 2002); Maria Odila Leite da Silva Dias, A interiorização da metrópole e outros
estudos (São Paulo: Alameda Casa Editorial, 2005); Raymundo Faoro intr. e
org., O debate político no processo da
Independência (Rio de Janeiro: Conselho Federal de Cultura, 1973); Faoro
intr. e org., O debate político no
processo da Independência (Rio de Janeiro: Conselho Federal de Cultura, 1973);
João Luís Ribeiro Fragoso, Homens de
grossa aventura: acumulação e hierarquia na praça mercantil do Rio de Janeiro
(1790-1830) (Rio de Janeiro: Arquivo Nacional, 1992); Lúcia Maria Bastos
Pereira das Neves, Corcundas e constitucionais:
a cultura política da Independência (1820-1822) (Rio de Janeiro: Revan, Faperj, 2003).
[26] Boris Fausto,
História do Brasil (São Paulo: EDUSP,
2003), 484.
[27]The Grande Oriente do Brasil was, and still
is, the biggest masonic organization in Brazil. This masonic body also claims
to be the continuation of the Grande
Oriente Brasílico that was shut by Dom Pedro still in 1822. Nevertheless,
neither of these names is mentioned in the movie.
[28] Octacílio
Schüler Sobrinho, Uma Luz na História: o
sentido e a formação da COMAB (Florianópolis: Editora O Prumo, 1998); José
Castellani, Os maçons na independência do
Brasil (Londrina: Editora maçônica “A Trolha” Ltda. 1993).
[29] One of
the Masonic officers of the lodge.
[30] It is
important to remark that Joaquim Gonçalves Ledo, was the head of a group who
desired a more Constitutional approach to a future Brazilian monarchy. This
group, initiated Dom Pedro in Freemasonry hoping to influence the regent
prince, only to find themselves, later, persecuted by the then Emperor of
Brazil.
[31]Pedro de
Alcântara, under the symbolic name of Guatimozin, took his oath as Grand Master
in October 4th, 1822 (José Castellani. “Os
maçons na independência”, 81).
[32] Daniel
Aarão Reis, “A vida Política”. In Modernização,
Ditadura e Democracia: 1964– 2010. Coordinated by Daniel Aarão Reis (Rio de
Janeiro: Fundación Mapfre e Editora Objetiva, 2014), 90.
[33] Pierre
Milza, Histoire de l'Italie : Des
origines à nos jours (Paris: Fayard, 2005), 995.
[34] Giorgo Agamben,
“Do bom uso da memória e do esquecimento”. In Exílio (seguido de valor e afeto) by Toni Negri (São Paulo, Editora
Iluminuras Ltda, 2001).
[35]The
Masonic lodge Propaganda Due, due to
its illicit activities was expelled from the Grande Oriented’Italia in 1976.However, the lodge continued, illegally,
its activities, infiltrating its members in the three branches of power, as
well as the Vatican and the Mafia. Its scams were uncovered by a Parliamentary
Investigation Committee being even characterized as “a state inside the state”.
[36]
Interpreted by Alberto Sordi.
[37]
Interpreted by Romolo Valli.
[38]Octacílio Schüler Sobrinho, Uma Luz na História: o sentido e a formação da COMAB (Florianópolis: Editora O Prumo, 1998), 483-510.
[39]Expression
used in the British TV series “Our Friends in the North” and that soon became a
way to refer to Freemasonry in England during the 1980s.