LA COMMUNE (Paris, 1871)
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France
2000 / Video / B&W; / 345 min.
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Paris, March 1871; civil war is raging. While a journalist on Versailles TV is issuing a soothing, truncated report on the events that are tearing apart the French Republic, a Community Television is being set up by the insurgent Parisians... In a theatre (the Armand Gatti workshop in Montreuil), some 220 actors, virtually all amateurs, impersonate the workers of the Popincourt quarter of the 11th Arrondissement and re-enact the social and political debates that racked the Paris Commune. Despite the period costumes, the discussions are as often as not about contemporary problems, about unemployment and racism, and many of the criticisms are aimed not at Versailles but at current government and society.
The energy, conviction and skill with which the players perform is startling... Peter Watkins accomplishing again what he achieved decades ago in CULLODEN and THE WAR GAME: giving a demonstration of what can be achieved when program makers are willing to use the public as creative participants rather than passive viewers. -- Peter Lennon (Guardian, London)
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Script: Peter Watkins.
Phot.: Odd Geir Saether.
Ed.: Peter Watkins, Agathe Bluysen, Patrick Watkins.
Prod.: Paul Saadoun, 13 Production, 13007 Marseille (France), t�l.: (04) 91 31 66 90, fax: (04) 91 31 75 67, e-mail: [email protected] / La Sept ARTE / I.N.A. / Mus�e d'Orsay.
Sales: 13 Production.
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Peter Watkins
Born in Norbiton, England in 1935, Peter Watkins began his career in advertising and turned to filmmaking in the late '50s. In the mid-60s he was commissioned by BBC-TV to make two feature-length docudramas. The second of these, THE WAR GAME (1965), graphically portrayed the nightmare of nuclear war and was banned from broadcast. Released in theatres, it earned a best documentary Oscar in 1966. After PRIVILEGE (1966), a commercial feature, Watkins has primarily worked in the documentary genre. His filmography includes: CULLODEN (1964), THE PEACE GAME (1969), PUNISHMENT PARK (1970), EDVARD MUNCH (1973), EVENING LAND (1976), THE JOURNEY (1986) and THE FREETHINKER (1994). |
