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Locarno retrospective explores “Hollywood Left” and the Blacklist through films and writers, curator says
The Apex Times

THE APEX TIMES

Culture/The Apex Times/Jul 31, 1:38 AM EDT

Locarno retrospective explores “Hollywood Left” and the Blacklist through films and writers, curator says

Ehsan Khoshbakht discusses “Red & Black,” a Locarno program that links classic screen and literary figures, Hollywood genre history, and past industry politics to contemporary culture.

2 min readEditor-approved Apex article

A curator for a new Locarno film retrospective is framing the program as a look at how the culture politics of Hollywood’s past, including the industry’s blacklist era, echo in the present media landscape. Ehsan Khoshbakht, speaking in an interview reported by The Hollywood Reporter, discussed a retrospective titled “Red & Black,” which he describes as crossing film and literary history and connecting older debates about political labels to what he calls the “age of Trump & Co.”

Khoshbakht’s explanation ties together figures and works associated with both mainstream entertainment and politically charged cultural commentary. The interview highlights his use of Charlie Chaplin and Dorothy Parker as reference points for understanding how public ideas circulated through popular culture, and how political reputations and artistic visibility could rise and fall within the Hollywood ecosystem.

The curator also connects the discussion to specific cinematic reference points, citing the Western “High Noon” as well as noir film traditions. In The Hollywood Reporter’s account, he treats these genres not only as entertainment categories but as frameworks for interpreting how American screen stories often encoded political anxieties, questions of loyalty, and disputes about authority.

The retrospective’s scope, as described in the interview, also bridges eras by incorporating modern prestige filmmaking. Khoshbakht cites Paul Thomas Anderson as part of the program’s connective tissue, describing how certain contemporary filmmaking concerns can be read alongside earlier Hollywood debates about ideology and public narratives.

In addition to discussing film history, the interview places media industry institutions themselves into the conversation. The Hollywood Reporter’s report says Khoshbakht even brought the publication’s own historical role into his explanation of “Red & Black,” using the idea of an industry mouthpiece to discuss how cultural gatekeepers help shape what becomes “acceptable” discourse.

The interview characterizes the Locarno retrospective as a curated conversation rather than a single-issue lecture, with the program using recurring themes and recognizable titles to make an historical comparison. Khoshbakht’s approach, as reported, centers on how the tools of condemnation and reputation-policing that marked earlier periods in Hollywood can be traced through genres, writers, and institutional voices.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the program is presented for festival audiences in the context of a broader cultural moment, using historical material to prompt viewers to reflect on the relationship between political labeling, public debate, and artistic production. The next public step is for audiences to experience the lineup as scheduled within the Locarno festival framework, and then evaluate the retrospective’s argument through the films and related materials selected by the curator.

Why It Matters

  • Film festivals use programming to frame cultural history for broad public audiences, and this retrospective’s framing suggests renewed interest in how Hollywood’s past political conflicts echo in current discourse.
  • By connecting well-known genres and recognizable creators across eras, the program may influence how audiences interpret the meaning of political controversy in screen entertainment.
  • Including an institutional media lens in the curator’s explanation highlights questions about how cultural gatekeepers shape reputations and public narratives.
  • The “Red & Black” framing indicates that debates over political identity and permissible speech continue to affect cultural production and reception, extending beyond the original blacklist era.

Sources

Key Facts

  • Ehsan Khoshbakht is the curator of Locarno’s retrospective titled “Red & Black.”
  • In an interview reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Khoshbakht linked the program to Hollywood’s blacklist-era politics and to the contemporary “age of Trump & Co.”
  • Khoshbakht’s discussion referenced Charlie Chaplin and Dorothy Parker as part of the retrospective’s historical framework.
  • The interview cited “High Noon” and noir film traditions as cinematic reference points in the program.
  • Khoshbakht also discussed modern filmmaking by citing Paul Thomas Anderson in connection with the retrospective’s themes.
  • The Hollywood Reporter says Khoshbakht used the publication’s own past as an example of an industry voice in this historical comparison.