(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Contemporary Fiction Views: Illusion and reality in Hollywood's Golden Age [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-18 Movies are only a part of the entertainment spectrum available to people now. But there was a time when losing oneself in a dark theater, watching images flash by up on a screen many times larger than life, were the shared language of the world. The golden Hollywood era is portrayed in Anthony Marra's Mercury Pictures Presents. In chronicling the lives and actions of characters involved in the studio, Marra also shows how events beyond Hollywood affected the studios. And how the studios affected events far beyond its back lots. Artie Feldman is battling the Production Code office over making yet another of Mercury's B movie features, and his twin brother, Ned, over financing. He has made ends meet by cutting corners for years. One of the ways he's done that is by filming foreign language versions at night of the movies being made during the day. At night, the extras who only play gangsters or waiters because of their ethnicities become heroes and leading men and women. Maria Lagana is Artie's right hand in making these productions. She originally was hired as a typist who could translate scripts into Italian. Maria and her mother fled Mussolini's Italy after her father was sentenced to life in cofino, exile within a village. Her father, Guiseppe, was a successful defense attorney who protected socialist clients until the Fascist regime stopped holding actual trials. Guiseppe spends his nights typing up defenses and appeals for those now left defenseless. Trying to protect her father, Maria instead calls attention to what he has been doing. No longer will her father sneak her into air-conditioned movie theaters on Sundays when they are supposed to be in church. No longer will they watch together the monsters on screen who are far less threatening than the real-life monsters, including those who storm the theater where they are watching Frankenstein. Marra is not shy about linking the villagers intent on destroying the creature and the dictator's stormtroopers intent on destroying civilized society. Artie's latest battle with the Breen office in 1941 Hollywood is his attempt to make Devil's Bargain, about a German filmmaker who goes the Faustian route by agreeing to make propaganda movies to finance his masterpiece. The Production Code office deems the story too pro-war. But when political enthusiasms change, Artie finds himself the darling of Washington and Mercury Pictures sees its fortunes grow. Marra weaves together the lives of several other characters to show the scope of both the sway the movies held over the public during the studio heyday and the way that movies and real life both reflect and deny each other. Mercury Pictures Presents is both a grand look back at a glamorous era that was held together with pinks and chutzpah, and a look at how politics and art battle each other in today's society. That the prejudices and fears of yesterday are brazenly showing themselves today is yet another example of what happens when we collectively forget how things used to be, and when many are too tired to dream of how things could be. READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/18/2164252/-Contemporary-Fiction-Views-Illusion-and-reality-in-Hollywood-s-Golden-Age Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/