Soupault's prophecy that “the future belongs to the creator, the poet” who can harness the potential of cinema echoes the groundless optimism of avant-garde manifestos, particularly those of the futurists. The buoyant prewar futurist manifestos envisioned modernity (and especially new technologies such as the cinema) as a conquering force that could overturn “all natural laws,” including time and space. The creator who harnesses this power, Soupault predicts, can shape the future. That is, he makes history. In what follows, I connect modernity as a conquering force with the manifesto's break from the past (figured in futurist manifestos as black and female or passé and degenerate) to demonstrate how futurist manifestos and other texts supported Italy's bid to become a modern, imperial power.

But that's not all that these texts do. Recall that in Chapter 1, I argued that the manifesto's temporality is composed of both straightforward instrumentality – to start the revolution, now! – and theatrical hesitation and reflection that is ironic and parodic.