LA COMMUNE (PARIS, 1871) - Peter Watkins stands as one of the finest -- yet least appreciated -- directors of the 20th Century. Through THE WARGAME, CULLODEN, PRIVILEGE, PUNISHMENT PARK and EDVARD MUNCH (among several others) he has expressed rage at a world set upon its own destruction and gorged on hypocrisy. LA COMMUNE (PARIS, 1871) is his most recent and ambitious work and serves as a culmination of all of his ideas in one long (345 minutes) and absorbing drama. After the disasterous defeat suffered by the French in the Franco-Prussian War, revolutionary fervour arose in Paris. This fervour turned into a civil war that left France fractionalized. As the monarchy of Napolean III collapsed and a Government of National Defense emerged, a situation arose in which commoners seized the reigns of power and established a government that challenged the authority of a newly elected National Assembly. The establishment of a the Paris Commune, a power separate from the one legally enforced by the State, forced an inevitable confrontation between established and insurgent authorities. Watkins mixes the past and the present to force us to confront the notion of a safe 'objective' reading of history (as history is too often related as facts and dates and not sweat, passion, hatred and love). Two television journalists, dressed in period costume, work for Commune TV. They interview a wide range of participants in the Commune -- men, women, children, soldiers, shopkeepers, nuns -- asking them their opinions on the events taking place (the very events they are helping to forge). Extensive intertitles provide historical detail and background. In the meanwhile, the official State television station, National TV Versailles, broadcasts the official (read:'historical') version of the events. The film is performed bynon-professional actors (as is the case in most of Watkins' films) yet they all come off as very convincing. Shot in black-and-white on digital cameras, the film takes on an forceful immediacy that draws the viewer into the past that is not so different from the present. The concerns of the characters in Watkins' drama are our concerns and the concerns of others all around the world. As the situation grows more dire for the creators of the Paris Commune experiment, we can feel the palitable dread of our own predicaments. Like the other Peter Watkins films we carry (THE WAR GAME/CULLODEN and PUNISHMENT PARK), LA COMMUNE (PARIS 1871) comes highly recommended.
- NTSC Region 1
- 3 Disc Set
- French with English Subtitles
- Bonus Film: The Universal Clock: The Resistance of Peter Watkins
- Peter Watkins Biography
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