Coming Soon
LA COMMUNE: PARIS 1871
2000
Director
Peter Watkins
Starring
The People of Paris
Runtime
345 minutes
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As France's republican government fled to Versailles in 1870, determined workers and radical intellectuals barricaded Paris and installed La Commune, a rapturous attempt at a utopian society. Peter Watkins's monumental and exhilarating masterwork keeps the radical spirit alive, audaciously mixing past and present to debunk the notion that history is available through a singular representation. Several hundred nonprofessional actors were charged with inventing their roles, beautifully reanimating the ill-fated utopia. This staging relies on serpentine tracking shots that glide between spirited arguments in the street, school lessons, and marching drills to reveal the intensifying strife. Over its six-hour transit, this “impassioned hubbub,” as J. Hoberman calls it, generates great immediacy. The urgency is heightened by two opposing news stations offering up their hasty commentary on the unfolding insurrection, as well as scenes in which the cast breaks out of 1871 to comment on the present moment. Infectious and heady, LA COMMUNE is itself evidence that revolutionary possibilities still linger.
"An intellectually challenging and tremendously moving experience, as history replayed among its contemporary ruins. LA COMMUNE is meant to evoke the unfamiliar sensation of revolutionary euphoria, or living (and dying) in a sacred time." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice
"The energy, conviction and skill with which the players of LA COMMUNE perform is startling. So genuine is the force of their passion that at moments you feel they might be about to erupt and carry the revolt live into the auditorium." - Peter Lennon, The Guardian
"Mesmerizing. A dialogue between past and present, with each time frame used to shape and define the other." - Jonathan Rosenbaum, The Chicago Reader
There will be two intermissions during this epic all-day screening.
Presented in partnership with RED MAY, a month-long spree of red arts, red theory, and red politics based in Seattle, Washington. RED MAY gathers in bookstores, movie theaters, bars, parks, cafes, alleys, and auditoriums to share in discussion and plot ways forward toward a world in common: a world beyond capitalism.
"An intellectually challenging and tremendously moving experience, as history replayed among its contemporary ruins. LA COMMUNE is meant to evoke the unfamiliar sensation of revolutionary euphoria, or living (and dying) in a sacred time." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice
"The energy, conviction and skill with which the players of LA COMMUNE perform is startling. So genuine is the force of their passion that at moments you feel they might be about to erupt and carry the revolt live into the auditorium." - Peter Lennon, The Guardian
"Mesmerizing. A dialogue between past and present, with each time frame used to shape and define the other." - Jonathan Rosenbaum, The Chicago Reader
There will be two intermissions during this epic all-day screening.
Presented in partnership with RED MAY, a month-long spree of red arts, red theory, and red politics based in Seattle, Washington. RED MAY gathers in bookstores, movie theaters, bars, parks, cafes, alleys, and auditoriums to share in discussion and plot ways forward toward a world in common: a world beyond capitalism.