Mussolini continues to get rid of any traces of foreign words, and even mounts an exhibit against the use of the common formal second person singular address "Lei" (you) in favor of "Voi." See this lesson about "Voi" to get some background.

We can see that the battle against using "Lei," the common, formal, second-person form of address, was taken very seriously by the fascists. In fact they went too far when it came to a popular women's magazine called "Lei" (she, her).

The nineteen twenties ushered in sound in cinema. Italy's L.U.C.E. [L'Unione Cinematografica Educativa or Educational Film Union] was founded in 1924 and generated the fascist regime's cinematic propaganda.

Soon after the introduction of talkies, dubbing came about in the thirties. Dubbing was extremely popular in Italy and remains so today.

Schools in fascist Italy banned the study of dialects and moved to using standardized textbooks. The fascist hymn “Viva Adua nostra” refers to a battle won by the Kingdom of Italy in 1896 near Adwa, Ethiopia.

This segment opens with a sort of poem, demonstrating how kids growing up in fascist Italy were expected to behave. Minority groups had a pretty hard time, too.

Mussolini inveighs against the middle class, saying that it is the enemy of fascism. Much of the footage in this segment features EUR, the Rome district that was built in the 30s and 40s.

The segment looks at the Royal Academy of Italy's dictionary of Italian, which was filled with quotes from Mussolini. By the end of World War II, the dictionary had gotten to the letter “C.”

After the war came TV. It changed everything, and provided a new way to unify the Italian language and teach people reading and writing.

The narrator goes over the vanishingly small number of expressions coined during Mussolini's time that are still in use today. The song that gives the series its name is provided in full.

This documentary opens with some lines from a poem by Pier Paolo Pasolini, “10 giugno” from 1962. The famous filmmaker and poet talks about his life, beginning with his troubled relationship with his father.

Pasolini talks about his first book of poetry and what he realized about his country when it was published in 1942. He explains why reviewers wouldn't touch it.

Pasolini talks about the Italian language and how it has been transformed over the years.

Pasolini talks about how artists are always controversial. They are a living protest. His protest involves language and national identity.

Pasolini talks about how he moved from literature to cinema, and how his ideas about language changed. He talked about providing Italians with an opportunity to demonstrate racism, perhaps for the first time, with his movie, Accattone.