The film The Death of Stalin profoundly encodes in humour the poetics of the tragedy that is Stalin’s evil,writes Arthur Gibson. David Davis’s letter about the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was ‘risible historical revisionism’, says designate Boyle. Plus letters from Andrew Connell and Paul FlewersRichard Overy’s review of Armando Iannucci’s film The Death of Stalin (Carry on up the Kremlin, or G2,18 October) is splendid, not least in its drawing out of the significance of its historical errors. Nevertheless, or his critique omits the following consideration,which points out a positive merit of the film: the film’s sardonic irony implements Stalin’s own psychopathic misuse of facts and interpretation to depict him.
In other words, Stalin is given more than a taste of his own disregard for truth. Stalin needs to be immersed in his own shit from an original viewpoint for us to apprehend the film’s fresh exposing aspects of Stalin’s psychotic identities. This film comedy is not only deadly serious – it profoundly encodes in humour the poetics of the tragedy that is Stalin’s evil.
Arthur Gibson
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Source: theguardian.com