La commune (Paris, 1871)
Posted by martinteller on February 25, 2011
This month has been loaded with movies that are much better than I thought they’d be. Maybe I’m getting soft, or maybe my expectations are too low. As this very lengthy film about the Communards (who, before now, were simply a Jimmy Sommerville band to me) started I thought, “This is going to be a nightmare of boredom.” It wasn’t long before I was hooked. Watkins recreates the events with an anachronistic twist: a television crew is recording the events, and provides commentary on how the media of both the past and the present manipulates the truth. The trick is simple but effective. The actors were apparently given a lot of free rein, and except for a couple of subpar performances (I kept noticing one hammy young lady in particular who always seemed to be vying for camera time) they’re very good. In another interesting twist, they often debate the current political climate in out-of-character discussions, and sometimes even drop in and out of character in the middle of a scene. All in all, this is pretty interesting stuff, and thankfully is closer to The War Game than Punishment Park. But let’s not get carried away. Although Watkins makes some attempt to reveal the failings of the Commune, it’s entirely clear where his sympathies lie. This is not an unbiased presentation, but one with a definite agenda. Furthermore, having people spouting doctrine at you for a large part of 6 hours can get really tedious. Most of the time, it’s surprisingly engaging, but some of it is very repetitive or long-winded… the lack of a reasonable voice for the counterpoint means you’re going to hear the same shit over and over and over again. Still, I was far more engaged that I anticipated. Rating: 7
