11th Brisbane International Film Festival

The Commune (Paris 1871) (La commune (Paris 1871))




Date	Venue	Time

15/7/2002	State Library	10:30am

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Director: PETER WATKINS
Category: World cinema , Documentary
Length: 345 mins
Production: 13 Production, Arte France, MusŽe d'Orsay, Institut national de l'Audiovisuel
Country: FRANCE
Language: French
Source: National Film Board of Canada

It seems that the 1871 Paris Commune has almost been written out of French school history books and has been shunned by film and television producers. It is, therefore, not surprising to find the subject a long-cherished Peter Watkins project. Never one for half measures, Watkins has reconstructed some of the events of the commune, funded by a French television production company, with a radical form to match the politics of the Communards.

Watkins synthesises theatrical space cinematically into a series of simultaneous events, both personal and epic, often without resorting to conventional cinematic devices such as parallel editing. As he explains, 'the form enables the process to take place - but without the process the form in itself is meaningless'.

The sparse but labyrinthine set in a disused factory, specially designed ceiling lighting, and highly mobile and flexible radio microphones allowed uninterrupted, gliding camera movement in long takes, providing ample space and scope for the actors. More than two hundred amateurs followed up the intensive work of the research team with their own research in the months prior to filming. They linked their roles with contemporary concerns, thus claiming personal 'ownership' of the history in place of the usual hierarchical process. The result is ensemble playing (most often directly to the camera) of a rare intensity that, at times, seems to redefine the notion of 'acting'.

Watkins's uniquely personal way of bringing the past into the present is further enhanced by the introduction of television reporters into the midst of the Commune and in a studio at Versailles, the temporary seat of the government intent on destroying the Commune. This is living history, rewarding for those with the staying power, essential for those that share only a fraction of Watkins's passionate concern, interwoven through his work, with challenging what he sees as abuse of power by much of the mass media and the need for radical democratic politics. In an accolade from the mainstream media that Watkins has not enjoyed since Edvard Munch (1976), Variety critic Eddie Cockrell concludes that The Commune (Paris 1871) is 'an involving, important workÉ white knuckle thriller, history lesson, polemical mass-media critique (and) genre bending docudrama'.

ABOUT PETER WATKINS

English filmmaker Peter Watkins made his first films in the 1950s. His film The War Game, about the horrors of nuclear war, won the 1966 Oscar for Best Documentary, but was considered too controversial to be broadcast by the BBC. Since 1968, he has lived outside England, working as both a filmmaker and critical-media teacher.