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Leon Trotsky died in Mexico seventy years ago this week.

In this delicate time, where may the Trot-curious turn for information and solace?

Burly Christopher Hitchens, America’s pet former Trotskyist, has long waxed nostalgic for his time in the struggle, although technically the grouplet to which he once adhered, Britain’s International Socialists [now Socialist Workers Party] had sprung free from orthodox Trotskyism.

The vast literary output of the late Russian revolutionary,   author and Frida Kahlo appreciator remains in print.

But real comfort may be found in the endless Trotsky tributes, homages and cultural oddities that infest the marketplace.

Trotsky [or Richard Burton’s head] explodes on the screen in The Assassination of Trotsky.

Burton looks more Col. Sanders than Lev Davidovich with perhaps cinema’s worst prosthetic facial hair.

But Alain Delon looks fabulous, as always.

If you reveled in the movie’s non-stop action, you’ll thrill to the film’s soundtrack, released for some reason in 2006.

The ageless revolutionary gets endlessly name-checked in the world of pop, from the Stranglers classic “No More Heroes”…

“Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?
He got an ice pick
That made his ears burn“

 

… to the unfortunately named Trotsky Icepick.

A more “upbeat” tone is set by Uruguay’s own Trotsky Vengaran [“Trotsky Avenged”, or “Avenge Trotsky”]

Trotsky is but an afterthought in the marketing juggernaut which is Frida Kahlo, but one to which The Old Man adds a bit of saucy fun.

Kahlo’s partner Diego Rivera  sponsored Trotsky’s asylum in Mexico, protecting, housing and feeding him. Trotsky returned the favor by having an affair with Kahlo, by some accounts.  In the Salma Hayek biopic an unlikely Geoffrey Rush does the honors.

 

Remember when every store from The Gap on up was crammed with vaguely Frida inspired fashion, quickly flushed from the market by the clothing buying public’s indifference?

“Frida” as brand appears to live on principally in naming the endless supply of somewhat Mexican bars and restaurants, many with murals slapped up!

Frida herself evolved into a nasty little Stalinist, placing herself at the Man of Steel’s feet in one of her last paintings. 

 

Audiences have not clamored for “Zina,”  which recreates the world of a Trotsky daughter, the suicidal mother of his grandson who operates the Trotsky Museum in Mexico. Her psychological fragility can’t have been helped by living in Berlin as Hitler advanced to power. She once visited Trotsky’s Turkish exile, accompanied by two ostensible Trotskyists who were in fact Soviet agents. Both her ex-husbands were killed by Stalin. The film incorporates actual home movies Trotsky shot in Mexico, but it’s only available in PAL format, forcing you to go to the Euro side.

 

 

 

Assassin Ramon Mercader’s path to Trotsky [and afterlife in Cuba and the USSR] is traced in this Spanish documentary:

 

Before Mexico Trotsky’s first stop in exile was Turkey, where he spent four years.  This film recreates those magical days,   a highlight of which was fishing with dynamite sticks, according to Trotsky secretary Jean Van Heijenoort    [or perhaps it was a story from another secretary, Albert Glotzer.] In any case, fish were gotten by fair means or foul.

 

How the deed was done, film & photo division:

…the best account of Stalin’s disappearing Trotsky and others from the images of the revolution.

 

Trotsky has not been entirely absent from Mexico since his assassination. The fifties saw production of a Mexican film with the Devil messing with Santa:

 

…with the Devil played for some reason by an actor named Jose Luis Aguirre ‘Trotsky.’

The film was so bad, or the rights to it so cheap, that it was worthy of a salute -Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa Claus:

 

Trotsky’s assassination site, his Mexico City home turned museum, plans a conference marking this anniversary.  As far as I can detect it is being publicised solely through pitches on lefty newsgroups.

Better Fewer But Better!