Log in
Civil Wars in France

Civil Wars in France

1978 · 135 min · ★ 10.0 · Drama, War, History

Three episodes from the history of socialism: Babeuf, whose virulent discourse is a radical assessment of the bourgeois revolution of 1789 (Vincent Nordon episode); the legend of Napoleon I, or the formation of the state as it still dominates today (François Barat episode); and the carnage of the Paris Commune, which official history strives to repress and forget (Joël Farges episode). What does it mean to make a historical film today? It means illuminating the present in the light of the past, and therefore adopting the new modes of modern storytelling to challenge what dominates us, structures us, and oppresses us.

Directed by François Barat · Written by François Barat

Your Rating

Cast

Make it a double feature

4h together

Civil Wars in France

La fille de Prague avec un sac très lourd

Both from François Barat.

More from François BaratSee all →

La fille de Prague avec un sac très lourdLa fille de Prague avec un sac très lourd · 1979
La fille de Prague avec un sac très lourd
★ 8.51979
Movie
Who is Milena whose arrival is announced to Sophie and Nicolas by postcard? The train from Prague brings for three weeks, the time of a visa, this young Czech and his bag stuffed with forbidden texts, marginal films and music. She will strive to make them known with the help of her new friends.
Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désertSon nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert · 1976
Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert
★ 7.21976
MovieDrama
The full soundtrack to Marguerite Duras' 1975 film India Song, about a French ambassador's wife in 1930s India, is here repurposed with all new cinematography. As we hear all the dialogue of a bygone movie, we travel visually through images of absence and decay, bereft of life. It's the ghost of a film, and a further commentary on colonialism.
The LorryThe Lorry · 1977
The Lorry
★ 6.41977
MovieDramaRomance
In this most talky and personal of films, director Marguerite Duras and actor Gerard Depardieu do an on-camera read-through of a movie script. Occasionally, the director comments about the characters or their motivations, and sometimes the actor does. That's all -- there is no action, there are no location shots, no one pretends to be anything else. The script itself tells about an encounter between a blank-slate of a woman hitchhiker, and a communist truck driver. As the reading progresses, Duras comments bitterly about the failed ideals of communism and the glorious revolution that will probably never happen.
Gaumont-PalaceGaumont-Palace · 1976
Gaumont-Palace
★ 6.01976
MovieDocumentary
From the deserted halls and corridors of the Gaumont-Palace cinema in Paris, memories of the great films that inhabited it before its demolition emerge like ghosts. The voice of Marguerite Duras, who reads texts from “Nathalie Granger” and “Woman of the Ganges”, adds a touch of nostalgia to this complex essay.
Gradiva: Esquisse IGradiva: Esquisse I · 1978
Gradiva: Esquisse I
★ 5.81978
MovieDrama
The movie shows a smattering of images from the story of Wilhelm Jensen's Gradiva. The subject is sublimated desire.
Zoo zéroZoo zéro · 1979
Zoo zéro
★ 5.21979
MovieScience FictionDrama
Eva is a singer in a Noah's Ark themed nightclub, where the guests wear animal masks. She is approached by a stranger who claims to know her and to remember her singing Mozart.
Oublier DurasOublier Duras · 2014
Oublier Duras
2014
Movie

More Like This

Couldn't load this row right now.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter