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ITALY'S " INTERNATIONAL " INSTITUTE
G. F. NOXON
On the Via Nomentana outside the ancient Papal walls of Rome, lies a large property surrounded by a high sun-baked wall and watched over by a number of rather embarassed-looking armed guards. Somehow, in this quiet Roman suburb they feel themselves hopelessly out of place. They guard the Villa Torlonia. Within the walls there are actually two villas, the one elegant, the other a trifle down-at-heel. The former villa is the home of Benito Mussolini and the latter is the seat of that somwhat obscure organization— The International Institute of Educational Cinematography. The I.I.E.C. sits, as it were, in Mussolini's back yard. It was founded on the Duce's direct instigation in 1929 in affiliation with the League of Nations. It has therefore an official link with the League and flies League colours over its international business. It is not however financed by the League but by Signor Mussolini through the Italian Government which pays to the tune of one million lira per annum to maintain this so called international "Institute." At the foundation appeals were of course made to other goverments for finance, but contributions were scanty and rare. Great Britain, America, France and Germany have given nothing. Poland, Hungary and Roumania have made minute contributions. The finance of the Institute remains 99 per cent. Italian.
Anyone who has the least knowledge of Signor Mussolini's political methods will ask immediately why he chooses to foot the bill for this Institute, and anyone who knows Mussolini's methods well will at once find the answer. Wherever the original idea of an International Institute of Educational Cinematography cropped up, it was and still is a brilliant conception. Mussolini's move to give the idea some sort of concrete shape, which in the boom year of '29 passed almost unnoticed as just one more extravagance of the expansionist mentality, now appears as further proof of his political astuteness.
It is curious that the realization of the cinema as a potent medium for propaganda seems to come naturally to one kind of politician and to escape the perception of others entirely. To Mussolini it was obvious that the investment of a mere million lira a year was a cheap price to pay for the control of the I.I.E.C, which, while
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