Thanks for the info guys.
I did recall someone placed the film in their top ten but I thought it was either 2001 or 2002.
I am going to order Watkins Punishment Park later this week.
It is also rumored that Watkins 1986 17 hour The Journey - A Film for Peace is due some time later this year on DVD.
I had wanted to see La Commune for sometime and found out via an article on Watkins films on DVD in a recent issues of Sight & Sound that it was available.
La Commune (Paris, 1871)
-
Precious Doll
- Emeritus
- Posts: 4453
- Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2003 2:20 am
- Location: Sydney
- Contact:
Eric is right: La Commune was my number one movie of 2003, when it played here in New York City at the Anthology Film Archives. (It was shown over two days, and was the fastest moving 6 hours imaginable.)
It's an amazing, often brilliant movie, one that is dense with details and thematic underpinnings, and yet is readily accessible. Primarily a dramatization of events regarding the Paris Commune, which was the radical left-wing government voted into power when the established government sold out France to Prussia and then retreated to Versailles in 1871, (shot completely in an old-factory-turned soundstage, the film's "look" - a combination of minimalism and period detail is great), the film does give a detailed history of the Commune - the events leading up to its formation, the internecine fights, the disillusionment, the final showdown with the "official" government, sometimes to the point of minutia, most of which is fascinating.
Beyond that aspect, though, this is an uber-Brechtian movie. First, there is Watkins's audacious decision to have television news reporters being on the scene covering events. At first, this felt like a gimmick (and a somewhat silly one), but before long it became clear that it worked beautifully in pulling the audience into the proceedings, as well as serving as a means of drawing parallels to Paris 1871 and the world today. And in part 2, the use of the device became even more apropos, as Watkins breaks down the divisions of past and present, with his actors suddenly breaking out of character to speak about their own beliefs, or the written on-screen commentary specifically alluding to the late 20th Century. There are also political discussions, history lessons and finely-wrought cameo character studies, all of which are completely compelling and make for a monumental movie. It's a committed left-wing film, and I found it to be exhilaratingly moving and full of wonderful moments.
Next to the Spanish Civil War, the Paris Commube is the historical event with which I'm most obsessed. Anyone going to Paris should make a pilgrimage to Pere Lachaise cemetery where, in the northeast corner is the Communards Wall, where 147 defenders of the Commune were lined up and shot by the reactionary government forces, bullet holes still very much present in the wall. And their bodies right below you in a mass grave.
It's an amazing, often brilliant movie, one that is dense with details and thematic underpinnings, and yet is readily accessible. Primarily a dramatization of events regarding the Paris Commune, which was the radical left-wing government voted into power when the established government sold out France to Prussia and then retreated to Versailles in 1871, (shot completely in an old-factory-turned soundstage, the film's "look" - a combination of minimalism and period detail is great), the film does give a detailed history of the Commune - the events leading up to its formation, the internecine fights, the disillusionment, the final showdown with the "official" government, sometimes to the point of minutia, most of which is fascinating.
Beyond that aspect, though, this is an uber-Brechtian movie. First, there is Watkins's audacious decision to have television news reporters being on the scene covering events. At first, this felt like a gimmick (and a somewhat silly one), but before long it became clear that it worked beautifully in pulling the audience into the proceedings, as well as serving as a means of drawing parallels to Paris 1871 and the world today. And in part 2, the use of the device became even more apropos, as Watkins breaks down the divisions of past and present, with his actors suddenly breaking out of character to speak about their own beliefs, or the written on-screen commentary specifically alluding to the late 20th Century. There are also political discussions, history lessons and finely-wrought cameo character studies, all of which are completely compelling and make for a monumental movie. It's a committed left-wing film, and I found it to be exhilaratingly moving and full of wonderful moments.
Next to the Spanish Civil War, the Paris Commube is the historical event with which I'm most obsessed. Anyone going to Paris should make a pilgrimage to Pere Lachaise cemetery where, in the northeast corner is the Communards Wall, where 147 defenders of the Commune were lined up and shot by the reactionary government forces, bullet holes still very much present in the wall. And their bodies right below you in a mass grave.
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
Sounds like something totally up my alley; thanks for the tip, Precious, I've added it to my Netflix queue.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
-
Precious Doll
- Emeritus
- Posts: 4453
- Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2003 2:20 am
- Location: Sydney
- Contact:
I have recently finished watching over the past three nights Peter Watkins 2000 epic, La Commune (Paris, 1871). Running time 345 minutes.
Words can not do justice to this staggering piece of art.
Filmed in black and white on DV in a unused factory in Paris during 1999 with a largely unprofessional cast.
It covers the events leading up to the working-class Parisians rising up against the bourgeois French national government which resulting in a massacre of epic proportions.
Watkins has shot the film through the 'interviews' of a film crew from the 'Commune TV' to counter the 'television broadcasts' from the National TV Versailles.
It's incredibly relevant to what is happening today, even more so then in 1999 when the film was actually made.
Has anyone else seen this film?
And does anyone know if this has been released anywhere?
If there has been any films made of the last 20 years that should be essential viewing for all, this one should be at the top of the list.
Words can not do justice to this staggering piece of art.
Filmed in black and white on DV in a unused factory in Paris during 1999 with a largely unprofessional cast.
It covers the events leading up to the working-class Parisians rising up against the bourgeois French national government which resulting in a massacre of epic proportions.
Watkins has shot the film through the 'interviews' of a film crew from the 'Commune TV' to counter the 'television broadcasts' from the National TV Versailles.
It's incredibly relevant to what is happening today, even more so then in 1999 when the film was actually made.
Has anyone else seen this film?
And does anyone know if this has been released anywhere?
If there has been any films made of the last 20 years that should be essential viewing for all, this one should be at the top of the list.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)