La Commune (Paris 1871)

Part documentary and part historical pageant, Peter Watkins' fascinating, if sometimes slow-moving, exercise in "You Are There" filmmaking brings the past to vivid life. Paris, 1871: In the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, the City of Light briefly becomes a socialist commune and Watkins picks up the story in the tense months following the initial peace agreement under which France agreed to pay Germany an indemnity of 5 billion francs and surrender its rights to the territories known as Alsace and Lorraine. While these terms satisfy the newly installed French government led by Adolphe Thiers, working-class Parisians are incensed. The residents of Paris endured...