Why are people praising this? The guy is a fascist! I agree Hollywood movies are really bad these days and that celebrities are not worth anyone's attention, but to start BANNING people and promoting radical, nationalist agendas? It is very sad to see Italy sliding back to its dark past. Wake up!

Alci, Los Angeles, CA, United States.

Bravo to the mayor. Maybe he does not want his country polluted with the immoral films Hollywood is cranking out these days. The Italians just want to revive their culture and arts. I believe it to be a great show of patriotism. For to long they have been the doormat of the "beautiful people."

Debbie, Tennessee, USA

A: I don't think it is fair for the Italians posting to keep putting Berlusconi and this guy in the same basket. B: Alemanno is a typical statist. Use government controls and coercion when anything else would work better. American movies are awful these days. Try asking Italians to make a good movie

Thomas, San Francisco, Ca, USA

well GOOD! this should be a wake up call for hollywood and hopefully it will change how people act there and how they view the art of movie making... more than just the shallow worship of movie stars. no one has apprieciation for the art anymore and it makes me angry. this should make them THINK.

jennifer, new york,

Good for him. Hollywood sucks. I like this guy more and more every minute.

dice, Woodbury, U.S.A

well, to promote your country's own cinema over films including hollywood stars seems pretty reasonable, its not like those films wont be elsewhere. The shouts in the streets of Duce sounds more amusing then anything. Oh and what does 'less cinema and more security' actually mean??

james , Norwich, United Kingdom

Alemanno should work on removing the "clientelism, & favoritism and general malaise" that exist in Italy, starting from Rome, rather that focussing on a film festival. Italian films will improve only if the banality that exists on italian television is changed and we should thank Berlusconi for it.

Flinders, adelaide, Australia

i'm worried about the reputation of my country, and i assure that in italy there's a lot of young people afraid of alemanno and his ideas. his victory is dued to the crysis of our left wing parties, acting in last months as if they were right sided.
Italy needs to avoid isolation, always dangerous.

Daniele, Rome, Italy

Oh no! again coffee made of chicory! Please Alemanno don't do it again.

antonio, Florence, Italy

The article is provocative and interesting, right the kind of thing we would need here in Italy, where the news about Alemanno's banning of Hollywood stars has hardly reached any newspaper. As if our making bad cinema depended on anyone but us! I'd call it stupidity and ignorance, not even fascism..

Giulia, Rome, Italy

It is worth remembering that the repellent and powerful thread of proto fascism in Italy's far right parties (and, indeed, in the non-politics of Berlusconi) was fostered and encouraged during the Cold War by the USA and Britain.

Tom Bertram, Roma, Italy

Reading the news and several of these comments, I think there is much confusion and ignorance, especially when I see that someone thinks that fascism is a left-winged movement.
I also see that coming back of fascism is a virus spreading not only in Italy.
Cheers,
Riccardo (Italian)

Riccardo, London, UK

He's got a point. The market is saturated with sappy US films. If you go in a Blockbuster it's wall-to-wall American junk. Politics aside, Italy has produced some of the finest cinema and he's right to be worried about it. Wish more people would take his stance and question US monopoly on cinema.

james, london,

I'm not proud to be italian anymore.

NiLem, Venice, Italy

What's the problem? As a native Californian, I wish we could ban these Hollywood idiots from Hollywood also. American movie stars are mostly an embarassment to our country and certainly to my beloved home state. Good on Rome!

MaryJ, San Francisco, US

Of course, fascism is noting but a variant of socialism. Mussolini was a socialist long before he was elected to lead Italy, and the fascist program included confiscatory taxation (sort of like LBJ, Carter and Clintobama.) International Socialism=USSR. National Socialism = Germany. Not much diff.

David Rogers, Austin, USA

This Alemanno fellow seems more like Reagan than Mussolini. Like Reagan, he started out on the left, but gradually found his way to understanding that government intervention and reflexive disdain for his own culture and country was misguided. I say the good sense of Roma will bring bona fortuna.

David Rogers, Austin, USA

The mayors' policies demonstrate that natural selection still has some way to go...

Omi, London, UK

Shame on this mayor. I have traveled to Rome., but I would never go back as the hatred they were towards Americans was unbelievable. Italian movies...spaghetti westerns are you serious? Life is Beautiful was the last good movie. Your thought process to black-list anyone shows your stupidity.

Carolann, Orlando, USA

I think making good films would be a better way to solve the problem.

Trevor, San Ramon, USA

Maybe Fascism results from being too much to either political spectrum.

As an American Conservative, I believe in less government, free markets, trade, individualism, and majority rule. Taking this philosophy to the extreme, we have Anarchy.

Fascism seems an extreme Left - Big Govern. philosophy

RogerCfromSD, San Diego, USA

Fascists are socialists, just right of communists. Both are authortarian.

Roger Thompson, Campbell, Ca

Let me see if I understand this:
"Italian cinema ...doesn't exist anymore." Therefore banning American films from the Rome film festival will fix Italian cinema! More likely the ban will "fix" the Rome film festival. Ciao Bene!

J. Wynne, Walnut Creek, CA,

Geez do you think Georgie Clooney will sell his palace on Lake Como. Maybe I can get a good deal on it.

Fred, Seattle, USA

Don't confuse "fascism" with Naziism." The excesses of the Nazis were never adopted by the Italian fascists, who ended up in an unfortunate alliance with the madman, Hitler.

The loss of European identity by accommodation of alien cultures with other value systems, inspires negative "reaction."

Johnson, USA,

I don't think Gianni Alemanno needs George Clooney or any of other American actors to be kissing and hugging him for allowing them to participate in the Roma Film Festival. I am glad that there wouldn't be one this year. Veltroni just copied the Venice Film Festival, the same as he copied Obama.

Nellie, New York, USA

Personally, I'm more concerned about the facist salutes and the "Duce" than hollywood. I was in Rome a couple of years ago, and those people are friendly and warm. I would be amazed if they let this ride. I am wondering, though, why they elected a violent man like him for their mayor.

Richard, Atlanta, USA

It's an obvious point that Hollywood movies get enormous amounts of coverage, and Italian cinema gets a lot less. So what's wrong with wanting to promote home goods? You can't possibly claim that the USA gives as much coverage to foreign films as they themselves receive abroad - stop whining!

louise, brighton, east sussex

I applaude this mayor. If only we could blacklist these left wing socialist hollywood liberals here in the US.

As for Rome/Italy and the rest of the EU, socialism has drug your great countries down into the gutter. Trust me I know, we have liberals here in the US that are doing the same to us.

Shane, Tallahassee, United States of America

Just to reiterate: Fascism is left of center, not right. Socialism is "kind" fascism, communism is even more enslaving.

And, as for those who crave more government help, remember that security (which doesn't exist anywhere except in weak minds) is purchased at the price of servitude.

Lucius B. Gravely, IV, E. Ellijay, USA

As an American of Sicilian ancestry, the recent elections in Rome, London, Italy and France are signs that Europe is awakening to the twin evils of marxist Relativism, with it hatred for Western Tradition, and radical Islam, both of which seek to destroy the freedoms Europeans, and Americans hold

Joe, Baton Rouge, USA

"Fascism is a LEFT-WING ideology, not a right wing one."

It's a right-wing one claiming to be left-wing, just like the National Socialists in Germany. Fascism is as right-wing as you can get. The whole left/right thing isn't just about whether you oppose capitalism or not.

M.R., Stockport,

Fascism is political ideology that seeks to regenerate the social, economic, and cultural life of a country by basing it on a heightened sense of national belonging or ethnic identity. Even though facist societies in the past have leaned left, really it can happen to both left and right societies.

Richard, Michigan, USA

Great strategy for Alemanno to get national attention to himself. Any well educated European knows that these political games have nothing to do with promoting Italian Films. Targeting high profile actors is his one big shot at getting the world to recognize him. How embarassing for Romans!

Dave C, Dallas, USA

perhaps we in hollywood could reciprocate by boycotting goods made in italy... imagine, no more pasta, olives, and ferraris...

frankh, hollywood, u.s.a

Good Luck. I personally have my own problems with most of Hollywood myself, but you just started sliding down the slippery slope. I wonder what's next?

Jon, Pittsburgh, USA

Like often happens, there is an excessive superficiality to explain facts. Always the usual superseded cliché. Seem strange to you, see other people that love own homeland? For Usa, it's patriotism, for all other is fascism.

iosip, marche, italy

Fascism is a LEFT-WING ideology, not a right wing one. Fascists believe in government control of the economy, nationalizing key industries (especially financial and raw material sectors), price controls, wage controls, and state-regulated allocation of resources. They oppose capitalism and profit.

Sydney, Portland, United States

Hmmm. Last I checked, Rome was Europe's number one tourism destination for Americans. Does the mayor want to disinvite all Americans who were planning on spending their dollars in his city? Maybe once they learn of Alemanno's fascist ways, they'll make that decision for themselves and go elsewhere.

Steve, Minneapolis, USA

"[George Clooney] warmly praised Alemanno’s centre-left-wing predecessor, the failed presidential candidate Walter Veltroni."

It's bad enough that Hollywood celebs inject themselves into American elections, but must they meddle in foreign politics as well? They are an embarrassment. Sorry, Italy.

Pedro Roman, Miami, Florida, USA

I wonder if Gianni will also blacklist that big Ole US dollar that Rome loves so much...

Robert, Los Angeles, USA

I did not vote for Mr. Berlusconi and would not have voted for Mr.Alemanno if I lived in Rome.
Mr.Alemanno wants to show his indipendence from the american power and his patriotic love at the expense of Hollywood stars, forgetting the 90 american nuclear weapons, hidden in our territory.

barbara, Gardone Riviera, Italy

Poor Carlotta, it is a "tragedy " for her to have Alemanno as Mayor. Evidently this is not the case for the majority of Romans who have voted for him, and this is how it goes in democracy.

Roberto Castellano, Salsomaggiore, Italy

Where does Alemanno think a name like "Leonardo DiCaprio" originated? Will he ban Scorsese next? Come to think of it, "Alemanno" sounds more Germanic, to me...

Tom J., Los Angeles, California, USA

Italians should not despair regardless of your political convictions. Your country is beautiful, your people friendly and your culture second to none. Politicians come and go. Rome will still be Rome, no matter the politician in charge. Italy is larger than politics.

Jeff, Cleveland, USA

Thank you for publishing news about Italy,
so they will, in part publish part of the news if pushed by foreign newspapers.

freedom of information is now defunct in italy under a fascist regime.

thank you again.

One of the many Italian nationals forced to look elswere for a respectful life.

Giorgio, London, UK

If you think the Italian cinema is bad look at ours , in America we have nothing but remakes . We had Jimmy Stewart & George C Scott in the past. Now we have Clooney & Ben Afflack. I don't know what happened but something really slung our movie industry to the bottem.

amanda, Birmingham, al, USA

The growing problem is Europe is that the socialists have dismantled all auspicies of pride in one's country (via multiculturalism, unfettered immigration), that the citizens may eventually snap and put in people that are extremely far-right.

Arthur, Houston, USA

Having lived in Britain for about 12 years I'm concerned of how things are going in my country. My acquaintances are now pointing out to me that even in Britain the Labour Party has lost a lot recently, but we are not seriously thinking to compare the Conservative with the Italian right wing ??

Giorgio, Biella, Italy

As italians living in Italy, I defer to you on these matters. However, europeans had better find and embrace their ancestry, culture and religion (without apology) or lose it forever to the marauding alien invasions that love nothing about europe generally, and italy in particular!

Michael Donini, Santa Margarita, CA, USA

It is a shame that zealous partisanship from one side breeds the same in the other. And now "the others" are having their say. I applaud the idea of "Italianship"; however the resurgence of fascism is grievous. However, as an American I can tell you blacklisting Hollywood will raise IQ scores.

James, Pensacola, USA,

When ever there is despair people tend to navigate to the shining light only to find that inevitable will go out leaving everyone in the dark.

Larry , Los Angeles , United States

Poor Europe, Poor world... the facist are back...

Nick Mentis, Athens,

The problem with such a man is that he, like his comrades, will try his best to underline his defensive role in favour of "italianity ", while most of the times he'll be pushing to the extreme the more rightist ideas...
This will bring even further the decadence of my country, and my own despair.

Alessandra ferrari, Cava dei tirreni, italy

I don't know what to say about it...I m italian but from the election day of april I d like to be something else. and you can see why..it's a tragedy for all of us to have people like Alemanno as a major of a great city like Rome.
that's all.
Carlotta

Carlotta, Milan, Italy

Me too, I am Italian and live in Rome. am proud of the latest elections' outcomes and agree with Alemanno's opinion with reference to any support to be given to Italian cinema.
I cannot understand how is it possible to make constant reference to past... Life goes on... for both sides...
C, Rome

Cri, Rome, Italy

Hellò everybody,

I really need to tell you, that I'm Italian and I'm not at all happy to have a prime minister as Berlusconi and as I'm a Roman man, living in the city of Rome , I'm not happy as well to have Alemanno as major! Thank you Mr John to write the truth about Alemanno. Best Regards
Edo

Edo, Rome, Italy