Doris Duranti, fascino and fascism. Function and contradictions of the femme fatale of Italian cinema, 1936-43

Abstract

Doris Duranti is remembered as one of a handful of screen actresses who was personally associated with the fascist regime and with the Italian Social Republic. In later years, through interviews and a volume of memoirs, she embraced the image of the fascist film star par excellence. This article highlights the contradictions of her screen image as a femme fatale who often played ethnic Others in propaganda films and who herself was of partly Jewish background. It locates her persona in relation to American ideas of glamour as they were received In Italy and considers the role of the producer Eugenio Fontana in working with these to fashion a personality who, despite an anti-conformist reputation, was useful to the regime. Duranti’s career offers a way of reading the development of the Italian star system under fascism and of understanding why so few stars of the period were able to successfully revive their careers after 1845.