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This article first appeared in the Democratic Green Socialist online magazine www.democraticgreensocialist.org Movies you should see before you die? Anne Edmonds, Lothians Solidarity member and retired lecturer in Film studies, picks ten movies all socialists should try to see | My ten must-see films for socialists are:- 1. Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion (The Great Illusion) France 1937 2. Vittorio de Sica's Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette) Italy 1948 3. Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men USA 1957 4. Terrence Malik's Badlands USA 1973 5. Istvan Svabo's Mephisto Hungary 1981 6. Bernardo Bertolucci's Before the Revolution (Primo della Rivoluzione) Italy 1964 7. Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers ( La Battaglia di Algeri) Italy 1965 8. Michael Haneke's Hidden (Cache) France 2006 9. Victor Erice's The Spirit of the Beehive ( El Esprito de la Colmane) Spain 1973 10. Akira Kurosawa's Living (Ikiru) Japan 1952 | | | |
I've chosen only one recent film - not because there haven't been good films which raise issues of interest to socialists over the last few years, but because I wanted to introduce films of lasting greatness that a lot of people may not have seen - or even be aware of. The films listed are all classics of cinema and are therefore available on DVD and can be borrowed cheaply from local libraries and rental outlets. I've put numbers 1 and 2 at the top of the list because Lothians Solidarity have shown them at fundraiser film evenings and both led to very interesting discussion. La Grande Illusion is the greatest anti-war film ever made (my subjective opinion - like all views expressed in this article) although only two gunshots are fired throughout the film. It also has a lot to say about class, nationalism, patriotism and anti-semitism, has a strong story line (both moving and humorous) and excellent performances. Bicycle Thieves is a neo-realist film i.e. it is shot on the streets of Rome and all the actors are non- professionals (except the thief). Its theme is the devastating effect of unemployment on a decent working class family and it is a strong indictment of capitalism. Bicycle Thieves features an outstanding performance by a child actor and, although the final sequence is a real tear-jerker, the seriousness of the theme is enlivened by humour and a strong story. Numbers 3 and 4 are films from the US illustrating the change in attitudes within the country to the American way of life. 12 Angry Men shows the American dream: a jury (12 white males - this is the 1950s) deliberate their verdict in a capital case in which a Puerto Rican teenager is accused of killing his father. Despite the initial response from 11 jurors of a cut-and dried guilty verdict, Henry Fonda, playing the epitome of American decency and respect for fair play and democracy, rips the evidence apart in a series of somewhat simplistic but always dramatic revelations, helped by the presence of two prejudiced and psychologically unbalanced jurors and their constant references to "do-gooders". The jurors are a stereotypical cross section of white American males but so perfect is the acting that the film presents a powerful image of the up-side of the American dream. Made a significant 16 years later, Number 4, on the other hand, is the American nightmare as teenagers Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek take flight through a stark landscape after an orgy of mindless violence in Badlands. I might have substituted the very impressive Elephant (Gus van Sant 2005) about a high-school massacre but I have seen it only once; both are highly recommended. Number 5 takes us to Nazi Germany in the 1930s with Mephisto; a left- wingactor (brilliantly performed by the Austrian Klaus Maria Brandauer) is led by his ambition to throw in his lot with the Nazis (i.e. to sell his soul to the devil) and becomes Germany's leading actor-manager. He salves his conscience by giving secret (he hopes) help to his mixed-race ex-lover and other left-wing friends from his past but ultimately gets his come-uppance in a melodramatic but very powerful final sequence. Number 6 is almost a mirror image of Mephisto; it is Bernardo Bertolucci's first film - before making Last Tango in Paris and being whisked off to Hollywood to make a series of expensive blockbusters like The Last Emperor and The Sheltering Sky. Bertolucci made a quartet of political films - Before the Revolution, The Conformist and The Spider's Stratagem, both examinations of the nature of Fascism, and 1900, an overview of Italian life and politics from the start of the 20th century until 1945; Before the Revolution is my favourite of these - although I do recognise that, unlike the other films on the list, it has some self-consciously "art-house" moments - Bertolucci was only 22 when he made it. It tells the story of a young man from a bourgeois family attempting to become an active Communist but finding the seductions of comfortable middle-class life too strong for him. Number 7, The Battle of Algiers , shows the 1955 rising against French colonial rule and is filmed in the Casbah; although Pontecorvo's sympathies are obviously with the petty criminal turned revolutionary Ali La Pointe and the revolt, the film is strengthened by not being completely one-sided. The French para who succeeds (temporarily, of course) in crushing the rising is ruthless yet charismatic and not totally unsympathetic a character. It is interesting to see the leading role played by Muslim women in the rebellion - I don't know whether this is historically accurate.The film is the most action-filled on my list - exciting and full of tension with a news-reel quality which adds to the realism from start to finish. It is helped by the stirring Morricone score. I've only had 3 viewings of my Number 8 Hidden ( all the other recommendations I've watched countless times) but I'm confident that, like all genuine works of art, it will reveal new aspects with every viewing. It is a film about race - specifically about the plight of Algerians in modern France. I considered recommending another fine film about race (La Haine or Hate 1995) as a follow up to Battle of Algiers but decided that Hidden is a more subtle and intriguing choice. The film is also about class differences - one look at the homes of the Algerian father and son and the arty middle class couple show how the odds are stacked against the generations after Ali La Ponte. Number 9 is the most subtle film on the list, The Spirit of the Beehive, which reveals its secrets slowly; the viewer is initially held by the brilliant portrayal of childhood shown by the two primary school sisters (or half sisters?) as indicated by the charming opening titles but, on deeper consideration, the film reveals a stark picture of the lives of Republican intellectuals after Franco's civil war victory. Finally,Number 10 - Living. Kurosawa also directed The Seven Samurai and the lead is played by the same actor in both films. Although Seven Samurai, a film about class and community, is an all-time great, I've not listed it because the visual impact of the battle sequence at the thrilling climax is lessened if viewed on a TV screen. Living is Kurosawa's other masterpiece; the head of department in a town hall office has wasted his career in rubber stamping and passing the buck to other departments. When he finds he has only months to live he makes three attempts to experience happiness through real life - but each ends in failure and humiliation. The second half of the film shows his Buddhist funeral and wake. His drunken under-clerks unravel in flashback the story of the very real achievement of his last months which enable him to die a happy and fulfilled man. They also reveal the attempts of the corrupt deputy mayor to steal his achievement for political gain. Anne Edmonds
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