Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
La Commune (1999)
Director: Peter Watkins
Movie review
From Time Out London
What looks likely to be the final film from the director of ‘The War Game’ returns in style to Watkins’ first feature, the provocative and committed ‘Culloden’. He adopts a similar framing device – the television presentation of a historical event – to explore the rise and fall of the 1871 Paris Commune. Around 200 citizens from the relevant districts reconstruct the events in a film that rigorously interrogates media authority, political power and personal responsibility. Fluidly shot in crisp monochrome, it builds a remarkable sense of popular participation (reflected in its communal making) in a seminal historical moment and deals head on with both how one makes a revolution actually work and similarly how it is betrayed by hierarchical interests.Author:
Time Out London Issue 1820: July 6-13 2005
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.
What do you think?
Post your review now