succès de scandale

Prolagus commented on the word succès de scandale

Using well-integrated archival material and assorted newer interviews, Mr. Gandini — who also serves as the narrator — opens his story with a wacky blast from Italy’s cathode-ray past: a television call-in quiz show that featured masked women stripping whenever a contestant has a correct answer. According to Mr. Gandini, the show was a succès de scandale because factory workers were staying up late to watch it. (Though unmentioned, the show emerged around the same time that Italy was being rocked by assaults by the Red Brigades, a homegrown militant group that in 1978 kidnapped and assassinated a former prime minister, Aldo Moro.) From this humble start Mr. Berlusconi found a television template for success: the fewer clothes women wore, the more power he accrued.

("Prime Minister, Primo Mogul", by Manohla Dargis. The New York Times, February 12, 2010.)

February 25, 2010