La Commune

La Commune (2001)

Genres - Drama, War  |   Sub-Genres - Military & War, Politics & Government  |   Release Date - Jul 3, 2003 (USA - Limited)  |   Run Time - 345 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Jonathan Crow

Noted filmmaker and media critic Peter Watkins directs this mammoth six-hour-long look at the legendary Paris Commune of 1871. Following the humiliating defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War, the reign of Napoleon III collapsed in the resulting public foment. While a new regime headed under the Government of National Defense tried to shore up power, a band of commoners took the reigns of power for themselves and created the Paris Commune, a government defiantly separate from the state operating under a sort of proto-Marxist ethos. Inevitably, the Commune was brutally suppressed by French troops. Watkins' treatment of the event juxtaposes the present with the past -- modern day CNN-style reporting with historical fact. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival.

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Keywords

empire, government, overthrow, power-struggle, radical, revolution, working-class, election, political-unrest, takeover, intellectualism