La Chinoise (1967) - full transcript

The French working class
won't politically unite

nor go to the barricades

just for a 12% rise in wages.

In the foreseeable future, there will be

no capitalist crisis great enough

for the workers to fight
for their vital interests

by a general revolutionary strike

or an armed revolt.

Moreover, the bourgeoisie will never
give up power without a fight

forced on them by the revolutionary masses.

So the main problem for socialist tactics



is how to create the objective
and subjective conditions

which make a mass
revolutionary action possible

and which render the use of force
against the bourgeoisie feasible.

THE

What is a word?

A word is what's unsaid.

And you?

Me?

Both sides against the other.

Me.

No, you,

who tries to tame the unforgettable

that might surprise us.

Myself now.



The you of excuses and rejections.

And us now?

We are the words of others.

WE SHOULD REPLACE VAGUE
IDEAS WITH CLEAR IMAGES

They know?

No.

Are they gone long?

All summer.

What do the parents do?

They own factories or something.

But Veronique is a close friend?

I don't think so.

Still, it's nice of them.

Liberalism in militant groups

based on collectivism is very harmful.

Liberalism deprives the revolution

of solid organisation
and strict discipline.

This is Radio Peking.

During last June and July,

when the Red Guard appeared,

Mao was aware of their vast vitality

and gave them his warm support.

In a very short time,

Red Guards were created in schools,

in many factories

and throughout the country.

They became an army
for the Cultural Revolution.

THE IMPERIALISTS

God, why have you forsaken me?

Because I don't exist.

This is Radio Peking.

The cell needs a name.

Remember Paul Nizan?

The conspirator.

He wrote a novel, Aden Arabia.

Cell Aden Arabia.

Right.

A MINORITY WITH THE RIGHT
IDEAS IS NOT A MINORITY

- He was beaten.
- By whom?

- I'll get some water.
- By whom?

A commando.

Hurt? Was it fascists?

No, Communists.

Now, right away, where?

The meeting on the Cultural Revolution.

The Sorbonne Marxist-Leninist group?

I told you they were disgusting.

An enemy attack is a good thing.

It proves we've made
a clear distinction to separate us.

A FILM IN THE MAKING

In her eyes are fear and innocence...

humility.

Not of a servant, but a friend and a woman,

with a wide and precise mouth,

not persuasive but loyal.

A kind forehead
willingly bending in silence.

In all that,

agreement can only be guessed.

Not in pain or success...

as if from a scattered past,
something serious appeared.

An actor?

It's hard to say.

Yes, yes, I'm an actor.

I'll show you something.
It's an idea of what theatre is.

Young Chinese students
demonstrated in Moscow

and of course the Russian police
beat them up.

The next day, in protest,

the Chinese met in front of their embassy

with all the Western reporters.

Guys from Life, France Soir and so on.

And a student came up,

his face covered with bandages

and started yelling.

Look what they did to me.

Look what the dirty revisionists did.

So the reporters rushed over

and began taking photos

as he removed the bandages.

They expected a cut face,

covered with blood or something.

And he carefully removed his bandages

as they took pictures.

When they were all off,

they realised his face was alright.

So the reporters began yelling,

This Chinaman's a fake.

He's a clown, what is this?

But they hadn't understood.

They didn't realise it was theatre.

Real theatre.

Reflection on reality.

I mean,

like Brecht or Shakespeare.

UNION: COMMUNIST YOUTH (MARXIST-LENINIST)

We must be different from our parents.

My father fought the Germans
hard in the war.

Now he runs a Club Med resort.

A big holiday camp by the sea.

What's terrible is

he doesn't realise that it's made exactly

along the lines of the concentration camps.

A socialist theatre?

No, I don't know.

I'm looking.

Yes, yes... Mao's ideas can help me.

In any case, you need sincerity
and violence.

You're getting a kick out of this.

Like I'm joking for the film,

because of all the technicians here.

But that's not it.

It's not because of a camera.

I'm sincere.

Yes... in China,

the leaps forward

by the Peking Opera were wonderful.

And in Europe, in France?

In Milan, Strehler does good work.

Yes, he has...

There's a great Althusser text
about a Brecht play...

and I've made it mine.

I turn around...

And suddenly the question is...

are the words I've just said,
so awkwardly and blindly...

part of a greater play
continuing through me

a worker in the world theatre.

The sense incomplete...

looking through and with me...

all the actors and settings

of the silent oration.

That's why I'm speaking.

Yes, that's why.

Cut, fine. Take five.

Go ahead.

I'll go with Serge.

Don't I get a kiss?

You said we'd go see 8 1/2.

Bye.

It's disgusting.

He always goes if I want him to stay.

It's a starting point.

Politics

are the starting point
of practical revolutionary action.

I don't get it.

You're too much.

I don't understand.

Now listen carefully, Yvonne, it's easy.

All revolutionary party action
is applied policy.

If it's the wrong policy,

it's the wrong politics.

If you're unaware, you're blind.

Why are you doing dishes, for example?

To clean them.

Then you've understood.

So 1967 France is like dirty dishes.

Yeah.

On a farm

near Grenoble.

It's a small village.

5am in summer, 7am in winter.

Light the fire, then go to the dairy.

My brother's meal, then the pigs,
clean the stable.

Lunch, the dishes, washing, the mending.

Usually had no time to mend.

In the afternoon,
gather the eggs, then dinner.

Then feed the calves.

Light the lights in the hen-house.

Then make yoghurt.

Neocapitalist society
won't look at its own face...

I arrived in Paris in 1960. No, '65...

Yes... sorry, in '64.

Cleaning lady for three years.

It's nice here on the top floor.

It's well lit, airy.

You know I worked at Passy before.

Then at Auteuil
in those big bourgeois flats

on the first floor.

It's always so dark.

I had to sweep in the dark.

Already the metro was dark.

So I went from dark to darkness.

Always black.

Then back into the dark metro after work.

Whereas here they talk and discuss.

It's very clear for me.

I used to talk while milking cows,

mostly with strangers.

In the country women are pretty lost.

Yes, I did some prostitution.

Nearly a year...

over by Stalingrad where I lived,

and then on the Champs Elysees

after I'd bought a car with my money.

A Fiat 850 convertible.

When money's short, I still do it.

When Henri can't sell
Red Guard for example,

or when Veronique can't find work teaching.

I know it's a contradiction.

Besides, Henri...

says I'm living proof

of the answer
to the people's contradictions.

I don't trust the Russians so much.

When we screamed "US killers",

all they could answer was,

Red Guard killers.

So I distrust them.

Marxism-Leninism?

Definitions.

When the sun sets, it's all red.

Then it disappears.

But in my heart the sun never sets.

Dictatorship is needed to stop thieves,

crooks, killers,

pyromaniacs, gangs

and all other evil minds
that upset public order.

A Communist is frank, open-minded, devoted,

putting the revolution before his life,

above any personal interests.

He must always hold to just principles

and fight any wrong ideas or actions

so as to help the collective Party life

reinforcing ties with the masses.

He will think more of the Party
than the individual.

He'll care for others more than himself.

Then he'll deserve the name 'Communist'.

A Communist must always ask himself why

and think carefully

to see if everything conforms to reality.

A Communist is never infallible,

should never be arrogant

and never think things are OK only at home.

The history of mankind

is a continual progress from necessity

to the reign of liberty.

What's for Monday?

Crime and politics.

THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL

The student revolutionary movement
has grown.

The white-collar revolutionary struggle

has spread among the workers and peasants.

This is Radio Peking.

Comrades, that is the latest news bulletin.

- This is Omar.
- Louder.

This is Omar, a comrade
in philosophy at Nanterre.

That's enough.

Comrades and friends...

In addition to his crimes and faults,

those who blame Stalin...

for all our deceptions,

our mistakes and despair in any sphere.

They might be very upset

to realise the end
of intellectual totalitarianism...

- That's dogmatism.
- If you like.

The end of intellectual dogmatism

hasn't given us Marxism

in its complete form.

After all, we can only liberate

what already exists, even from dogmatism.

Stalin's death meant freedom for research

and a fever of people rushing
to philosophise

about their feelings on liberation

and their taste for freedom.

Stalin's death gave us

the right to count exactly what we own.

To call both wealth and nakedness...

by their real names,

to think and talk aloud about our problems

and to undertake serious research.

Stalin's death allowed us

to get partially away
from our provincial theories.

To recognise and know the existence
of others aside from us

and seeing this exterior,
begin to see ourselves better.

To know the place we occupy
in the knowledge

and ignorance of Marxism

and then begin to know ourselves.

Today's task is simply to define,

to face these problems in the light of day

if we want to give some existence

and consistency to Marxist philosophy.

Any questions?

Can a non-socialist revolution

peacefully be changed into a socialist one?

Yes, under specific conditions.

But never can

an absence of revolution
be changed to revolution,

nor into a socialist revolution,
and even to socialism.

No matter how you look at it,

the road to socialism leads to revolution.

But your question reveals
a false underlying notion.

Where do just ideas arise?

Where do just ideas come from?

Out of the sky.

No, they come
from social interaction, and...

The fight to produce?

Yes, and then...

From scientific research.

Yes, and what else?

From the class struggle.

Some classes are victorious,
others defeated.

That's history.

The history of all civilizations.

Will it end under proletarian dictatorship?

No. In his speech

to the transport workers

on 29 March 1921,

Lenin showed

class struggle doesn't disappear
under proletarian dictatorship.

It takes on other forms.

As is happening in Russia today.

Yes, in spite of the lies of the duo,
Brezhnev - Kosygin.

Give up illusions and prepare to fight.

This world is as much yours as ours.

Hope lies with you.

To work is to fight

and you must seek truth in the facts.

But exactly what is a fact?

Facts are things and phenomena

as they exist objectively.

Truth is the link between things
and phenomena.

Which is to say the laws.

To seek is to study.

We must begin

with the internal and external situation

going from country to country.

Sort out the laws that apply
to serve as guides

and not use our imaginations.

Which is to say find
the internal ties in events

occurring around us.

What made me discover Marxism?

At first Nanterre bored me,

because it was surrounded by slums.

Then little by little,

I found philosophy suited
a worker's suburb.

We and the workers
lived like penned rabbits.

But rabbits multiply.

And in the mornings
I met the Algerian children

and the mechanics from Simca.

Right, so...

I thought I passed them by,

but we stopped in the same cafes.

We were at the station together,

had the same rain and nearly the same work.

That's where I understood

the three basic inequalities of capitalism

and especially
of the Gaullist regime in France.

No difference in intellectual
and manual work

between town and country.

I see those here all the time.

Third, between farming and industry.

That also pushed me
to study Marxism-Leninism.

Seriously, if I were brave,

I'd dynamite the Sorbonne,
the Louvre, the Comédie-Française.

Really?

The revolution's no party.

It's not made like a work of art.

It can't be done
with elegance and peace of mind,

with such tenderness and manners

with reserve and generosity.

Revolution is a violent uprising

when one class overthrows another.

I'm in the philosophy class.

I know I'm cut off from the workers.

After all, my family are bankers.

I've always lived with them.

None of that's very clear.

That's exactly why I keep on studying.

To understand first and then to change,

and then formulate a theory.

For myself, for example.

Not based on misery, but prosperity.

Since I often profit from it.

Even if I am ashamed of it.

You often hear "a quick retort",

what does that mean?

Quick retort?

For us it's to first eliminate exams.

Since we learn nothing and can't copy

and it's a kind of racism,

since they're for full-time students

and create anxiety and sexual frustration.

Should books be burned?

No, they shouldn't.

We couldn't criticize them then.

And youth all aflame holds nothing back.

Hate, love, sorrow, happiness.

It is ready to pour out its heart.

In love like an invalid, Onéguine...

With a serious look, Onéguine

listened to the poet's heart

reveal its guileless awareness.

I want to be blind.

Why?

To speak to each other better.
We'd listen carefully.

Yes, how?

We'd use language differently.

Don't forget in 2,000 years
words have changed meaning.

So?

So, we'd talk seriously to each other.

Which means

finally meanings would change words.

Right.

Talk as if words were sounds and matter.

That's...

what they are.

Veronique.

Right, let's try then.

On the river bank.

Green and blue.

Tenderness.

A bit of despair.

After tomorrow.

Maybe.

Literary theory.

A film by Nicolas.

Ray.

The Moscow trials.

Red bird.

Rock...

and roll.

Et cetera.

You know I love you.

The...

theoretical...

base...

which...

serves...

as...

a guide...

in...

our...

thinking...

is...

Marxism...

Leninism.

THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE

Comrades and friends.

Today is current events.

We see them daily at the movies.

There's a false idea
about current events at the movies.

They say Lumiere invented current events.

He made documentaries.

But there was also Melies,

who made fiction.

He was a dreamer filming fantasies.

I think just the opposite.

Prove it.

Two days ago I saw a film by Mr Langlois,

the director of the Cinematheque,
about Lumiere.

It proves Lumiere was a painter.

He filmed the same things

painters were painting at that time,

men like Charo, Manet or Renoir.

What did he film?

He filmed train stations.

He filmed public gardens,

workers going home,

men playing cards.

He filmed trams.

One of the last great Impressionists?

Exactly, a contemporary of Proust.

So Melies did the same thing.

No, what was Melies doing at that time?

He filmed a trip to the moon.

Melies filmed

the King of Yugoslavia's visit
to President Fallieres.

And now in perspective,

we realise those were the current events.

No kidding, it's true.

He made current events.
They were re-enacted, alright.

Yet they were the real events.

I'd even say Melies was like Brecht.

We mustn't forget that.

And why mustn't we?

Why mustn't we?

So why?

Why?

Because an analysis
of a specific situation,

as Lenin says, is the essential...

An analysis?

the soul of Marxism.

What's analysis?

It's seeing the inherent contradictions...

OK, but why analysis?

Because

things are complicated
by determining factors.

Yes, Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin

teach us to carefully study the situation

very conscientiously.

Starting from objective reality,

not from our subjective desires.

Right?

OK, exactly.

Especially in the news.

We must examine the different aspects,

not just one.

Enough theory. Now a problem.

Which one do you want?

War.

Asia.

The war in Asia, Vietnam, then.

Who are the actors?

The Americans.

The Americans.

Americans... who have dropped
more bombs on a tiny country

than during the World War
and are wrong in their doctrine,

Asia for the Americans.

The Russians.

The Russians are a bit cowardly as they go,

Do as I say, not as I do.

The Chinese.

Oh yes... the Chinese.

The Chinese who apply Mao's ideas.

Reactionaries are paper tigers.

They appear ferocious.

But they're not really so powerful.

At the Moscow conference

of Communist workers on 18 November 1957:

Strategically we must scorn the enemy

but tactically weigh him carefully.

Then there are the others, the on-lookers,

the indifferent, the lazy, people like...

like the French...

Or the English.

Isn't Vietnam an actor?

Yes, Vietnam.

Help, help.

First a few facts, as truth lies there.

The NLF will win.

The NLF will win.

In short.

The liberation army in Ta Kien province

has killed and captured
10 of the 300 puppet soldiers.

Radio Peking...

In brief, Johnson's fighting
Communism in Vietnam.

OK, right.

That proves there are
two kinds of Communism,

since in Europe
he's not fighting it at all.

On the contrary,
he signs agreements with Moscow.

He invites Hungarian swimmers
to Los Angeles.

He invites Czech violinists

to play with the Boston Symphony.

He builds factories in Romania, in Poland,

while destroying the factories in Hanoi.

Help, help, help.

Help, Mr Kosygin, help.

That proves there are two Communisms.

A dangerous one,

and one not dangerous.

A Communism Johnson must fight,

and one he holds out his hand to.

Hello Kosygin, you OK?

And why is one of them no longer dangerous?

Because it has changed.

The Americans haven't.

They're an imperialist power.

Since they haven't changed,
then it's the others who've changed.

The Russians and their friends
have become revisionists

that Americans can get on with.

While the real Communists
that haven't changed

need to be kicked in the face.

That's what Vietnam's about.

I'm for peace in Vietnam.

Whether intentionally or not,

both the Russians and Americans...

I'm for peace in Vietnam.

are fighting the real Communists, in China.

That's a general conclusion.

As for Vietnam...

Help, help, Mr Kosygin!

Help, Mr Kosygin!

Hurry, Mr Kosygin!

A specific conclusion is...

Any

progressive

war... is just.

Any war... opposing progress...

is unjust.

We other...

Communists... are fighting... against...

all... such...

unjust... wars.

But we aren't... against...
progressive wars.

Friends, comrades.

Why is being American intolerable?

An important question.

Indeed, if a socialist might admire
the wealth of the US

he must place it in perspective
in the relative world context...

and at that level understand it,

using rareness and exploitation
as criteria.

Rareness, exploitation.

Protesting the structures that feed it.

Structures.

Otherwise socialism falls
into the right-wing trap...

Trap.

which is the Stalinism
of Capitalistic abundance,

an apology for power, for luxury.

A good example is

the current French Finance Minister,
Mr Michel Debré.

For us,

the human sciences must again be...

what they were for Marx.

A political instrument.

A fighting truth.

A fighting truth.

Don't forget the 19th century Marxists,

before filling the Russian academies,

were men of science.

Hooligan iconoclasts

and revolutionaries.

Revolutionaries.

Today some schools for human sciences

are retracing the road to Marxism,
but backwards.

Not to show flaws in society,

but to show flaws as part of a whole,

to show how men's will and projects
cannot change.

Structure, change.

In short, man is an idea of modern thinkers

that can be transcended.

This situation in the human sciences

that Sartre tried to upset by his genius...

this situation is disturbing...

Disturbing.

It's the image

of the impotence of Europe's left.

That impotence indicates its decline.

THEY CONTINUE

We're a bit like Robinson.

Remember Engel's text on Robinson?

In what?

In Anti-Duhring.

Guillaume, answer the phone!

What surprises me
are your quarrels with the Party.

After a while I discovered

three quarters of the ideas and analyses

by the Party are false

for intellectuals.

Too close to Moscow.

Look. Nizan is dead, Merleau is dead.

Sartre's hiding in Flaubert,
Aragon in maths.

I find them both moving now.

Right, but it's tragic also.

It's the Party's fault?

Yes, exactly.

That's why we must seek our ideal

1,000 km away in Peking.

Listen: No matter what his position,

no Communist should automatically treat,

without due process,
the Chinese Cultural Revolution

like just another fact or argument.

The Cultural Revolution isn't an argument.

First it's historical fact,

an historical fact unlike any other.

Then there's this.

Exporting cultural revolt is impossible,

as it belongs to China.

But the theoretical lessons
belong to all Communists.

They must borrow the lessons
and make them their own.

Guillaume, answer the phone!

I'm Veronique Supervielle.

I'm 19 years, eight months,

14 hours, two minutes,

SECOND MOVEMENT OF THE FILM

Vietnam burns and me I spurn Mao Mao

Johnson giggles and me I wiggle Mao Mao

Napalm runs and me I gun Mao Mao

Cities die and me I cry Mao Mao

Whores cry and me I sigh Mao Mao

The rice is mad and me a cad

It's the Little Red Book

That makes it all move

Imperialism lays down the law

Revolution is not a party

The A-bomb is a paper tiger

The masses are the real heroes

The Yanks kill and me I read Mao Mao

The jester is king and me I sing Mao Mao

The bombs go off and me I scoff Mao Mao

Girls run and me I follow Mao Mao

The Russians eat and me I dance Mao Mao

I denounce and I renounce Mao Mao

It's the Little Red Book

That makes it all move.

THEY CONTINUE THE REIGN

And now El Cordobes.

Paco Camino.

Why did he ditch our bull's head?

We can't have any more fun.

He's mad and going to commit suicide.

- Hurry up, Fernand.
- Coming...

Look at that, Isabelle.

Great racing handlebars and a seat.

- He took it?
- Yes.

He's a stupid prick.

No, that worker's a genius.

With a bull's head he made
handlebars and a seat.

Divine metamorphosis, Mr Malraux.

He who speaks of struggle...

speaks of sacrifice.

And death...

is a common thing.

THE REIGN OF DESPOTISM IN ASIA, AFRICA...

AND LATIN AMERICA

One: the history of art
in the last 100 years

is the road leading to the concept

of art as its own science.

Two.

We are not the ones

using obscure language.

It's our society,

which is hermetic and closed up

in the poorest of languages possible.

Three:

Maiakovsky in poetry.

Eisenstein in movies.

All those fighting

for a definition of socialist art

were knifed in the back

by Trotsky and the others.

Those who two months
after taking the Winter Palace,

accepted imperialist language

to sign the peace treaty

of Brest-Litovsk.

Art doesn't reproduce the visible.

It makes visible.

But the aesthetic effect is imaginary.

Yes, but the imaginary
doesn't reflect reality.

It's the reality of the reflection.

You sometimes hear statements like,

Use only three colours.

The three primary colours,

blue, yellow and red.

Perfectly pure and perfectly balanced,

on the pretext that
all the other colours are there.

For everything we see,

we must consider three things.

The position of the seeing eye,

of the object seen

and of the source of light.

Perhaps reality

hasn't yet appeared to anyone.

As for us...

we demand the unity of politics and art.

The unity of content and form,

the unity of a revolutionary content.

And...

an artistic form

as perfect as possible.

Works lacking artistic value,

no matter how politically advanced

are ineffective.

In literature and in art we must

fight on two fronts.

Fighting on two fronts...

I find too complicated.

I do only one thing at a time.

I don't understand how you can

listen to music and write at the same time.

Two fronts.

Too complicated.

Do you love me?

Of course I do.

I've decided I don't love you anymore.

What's going on?

I no longer like your face, eyes, mouth.

Nor your sweaters.
And you bore me terribly.

What's happening?

I don't love you.

I don't understand.

You will.

Veronique.

You will.

Explain why you're saying that.

I no longer love you.

You interfere.

You worry me.

Love's too difficult with you.

I hate how you discuss things you ignore.

I don't love you.

I don't love you.

Understand now?

Yeah, I do.

I'm very sad...

but I understand.

You see, you can do two things at once.

To understand you had to do it.

Music and language.

You must struggle on two fronts.

But you really scared me.

Me too, I'm often scared.

THEY CONTINUE OPPRESSION IN THE WEST

Some comrades have bad work habits,

the antithesis of the Marxist spirit.

Like catching birds blindfolded.

Why are you looking at me?

I'm not a strange animal.

I'm a human being.

And your look

is the same as Whites in America
looking at Blacks

or Arabs looking at Jews,

or vice versa in the Middle East.

And in the Communist world, Russians

looking at Chinese.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

There's no face that can't be drawn,

like the face of a dream.

Serge Dimitri Kirilov.

Not Novalis.

But it was voted yesterday.

But he's a scholar, not a poet.

A scholar on poetry like Brecht on theatre.

The Party controls the guns.
Guns must not control the Party.

Poor Novalis.

How to unite Marxist-Leninist theory

and the practice of revolution?

There's a well-known saying.

It's like shooting at a target.

Just like aiming at the target,

Marxism-Leninism must aim at revolution.

You can disagree

with the terms I use to define the problem.

But if, like most workers,

who use their hands and heads

you judge or vaguely feel

that capitalism is no better today
than yesterday...

Back to Moscow!

As economic and social development,

as a way of life, as a system of relations

of men together.

With their work, with nature.

With the people of the world.

Kosygin and Johnson are killers.

By the use he does or does not make
of resources and science,

of present and future creative capacities,

of each person.

What of Siniavsky?

And if you adhere to socialism
with that feeling

the problem of its rise to power
is put in those terms.

Once you admit that violent revolt
and barricades

can't occur in advanced capitalism

in France, Sweden, Italy,

you can agree
with the French Communist Party...

Revisionist, revisionist!

THIRD MOVEMENT OF THE FILM

Isn't that Michel?

You think so?

Listen to how he pronounces "s".

Maybe you're right.

Maybe Claude's there.

Veronique said she had a letter.

In July he'll bring committee orders

on beginning hostilities and against whom.

- Am I in it?
- No.

The combat group will have its own
organisation, personnel and finances.

This is Radio Peking.

Comrades and friends...

Those in favour raise their hands.

Majority decision is to create
a special combat organisation

which, in strict observance of conspiracy

and division of labour

will take care exclusively
of terrorist activity.

Now let's draw lots.

Open it and read.

Men use

the sciences of nature

as a weapon

in their struggle for liberty.

DIALOGUE 4 HENRI AFTER HIS EXCLUSION

Since January,

maybe December.

You left them?

Yes, well, they excluded me.

It's all the same.

Why did they throw you out?

I refused to criticize myself.

How did it happen?

Like in all cells,

there was a vote.

But what led to the vote?

It started

during Veronique's exposé.

The forms of oppression aren't the same.

Life now under Pompidou

isn't like during the war under Hitler.

Yet, comrades and friends...

Just as Serge showed
how art doesn't reflect reality,

but is the reality of reflection,

such is the reality of formulas used
by friends of Pompidou and Malraux

to ban a film like The Nun
by Jacques Rivette.

It's that reality,
since in formulas there's form

which makes me think
it's a form of oppression.

She was confusing Marx and theatre

and politics, and that's romanticism.

She behaved in life like an actress.

She was influenced by Guillaume.

Who's he?

An actor.

He was one of the group?

Yes... a fanatic.

His father had worked with Arthaud.

While with Kosygin, Wilson,
Pompidou, it's sweet death.

If that doesn't suit you,

there's violent death in North Vietnam.

While in the South, sweet death is enough.

But I say it's the same

in literary and scientific studies.

The Left has suggested reforms.

As long as Racine portrays men as they are.

As long as Sade is prohibited.

As long as maths isn't taught in nurseries.

As long as they subsidize the queers
at the Comédie-Française

more than Planchon or Bourseiller.

The reforms are a dead letter,

because it's dead language.

It's class culture

taught by one class.

A culture belonging to a certain class

that pursues a certain policy.

The analysis...

was amiss.

So the conclusion was unreal.

If you don't agree it's...

Yes, I'm for peaceful co-existence.

What's the Party doing to change that?

There are some good things.

Two weeks ago they were praising
books that confuse words and things,

that serve reactionary thinking.

Comrades, we must:
one, close the puppet university.

Right, but how?

What do you suggest, dreamer?

Two, by terror.

Yes, but what kind of terror?

Terror leads to nothing today.

However,

that culture is 0.43%
of the national budget...

Veronique was right.

As for Aragon...

If the Party's more supple,

it's because of him.

Sometimes I was enthusiastic,

glorifying the socialist edifice
in my writing.

But the next day I countered

with criminal-like practical action.

There was formed

what Hegel called

an unhappy conscience.

It differed from the ordinary conscience...

BOUKARIN'S LAST WORDS
AT THE LAST MOSCOW TRIALS

In that it was also a criminal conscience.

Ad in France Soir on June 14.

Old Russia, the great religious centres

of Czarist Russia, brought to life

and May Day in Moscow.

Information at Monit Travel,

4 place de I'Opera, phone 7420646.

Where are the old revolutionaries?

Sad, huh?

It's sad, alright.

Their argument was Sputnik Digest.

It's a pretty disgusting magazine.

But that's not enough

to systematically condemn
the Party attitude

the way they do in
L'Humanite Nouvelle or Garde Rouge.

The main organ of the French
Marxist-Leninist movement.

During the elections in March,

the only people to talk
of the price of a fridge,

of work rates or bathrooms,

and not just general philosophy...

It wasn't Mitterrand or Mendes France,

it was the delegates
of the French Communist Party.

It's not that.
I said they haven't read all of Marx.

- You're way off.
- Not read him seriously.

Well, I'm for peaceful coexistence.

Lenin said to cut off
one enemy finger to save ten.

Rosa Luxembourg

saw the difficulty in answering.

How troubled she was.

How she blushed without understanding.

Why, because movies and plays

cost money and the army is free.

It should be the opposite.

Shows should be free.

Those who want to make war
should pay to do so.

When they say the leftist agreement
is a dagger for Vietnam,

or that the Communist press...

Everyone talks of the crimes
of the Red Guard

in the Cultural Revolution.

Listen, this is fantastic.

The first date for Juliette and Pierre

opened doors to a new world of magic.

The world of words
no one had spoken before them.

What are you reading?

Henri gave me the Party's women's magazine.

Let's see.

Like the night before, their eyes met.

Pierre couldn't speak.

No point in being Communist
to use that soap opera language.

I forbid you to read that.

I said Henri's a revisionist.

The joker's a king and I sing Mao Mao...

Reminds me of pictures
of L'Illustration from 1917,

that treated Bolsheviks as beatniks.

They used the same terms for the Bolsheviks

as that paper uses for the Red Guard.

You expect Le Figaro
to say that sort of thing.

But when L'Humanite does, it's disgusting.

OK, there's work to do.

For everyone.

The other day I was reading
L'Humanite Nouvelle.

They talked about the film Johnny Guitar,

that the Party leaders had shown

at a meeting somewhere,

I'm not sure where.

But they attack the film
because it's American,

even if it's good.

So, as Veronique's big enemy, Malraux says,

liberty doesn't always have clean hands.

Veronique, what's the matter?

Problems?

I have too many enemies.

Enemies? You?

But who?

You know, the warlords,

the bureaucrats, magnates and landowners

and the reactionary intellectuals.

Those are my enemies.

Well, that makes a lot of enemies, indeed.

What are you up to?

Not much.

Writing in Les Temps Modernes as always,

some books...

ENCOUNTER WITH FRANCIS JEANSON

For this year I have a new project.

What?

I want to do cultural action.

But what's that?

I don't think anyone really knows yet.

And I want to try an experiment.

But culture and action are old words.

Yes, but culture is cut off
from action now.

At least it seems so.

So it doesn't interest me.

- Besides, I agree with you.
- You do?

What interests me is

that culture gives control of the world.

Concretely, when will you do it?

I start in two months.

The experiment will last a year.

Because I want to see what's possible.

What is the experiment?

With a whole team, we're going to try...

- In what area?
- Acting, for example.

- Theatre?
- Yes, in a theatre at Châlon.

The Bourgogne Theatre. We'll try to...

You'll move out of town?

I'm going to Bourgogne.

But you know, Châlon isn't very far.

Isn't leaving Paris sad?

No, I'm glad.

Delighted?

Because I can't work here anymore.

Anyway, I don't write when I'm in Paris.

My books aren't progressing.

Maybe I can start this action outside Paris

and write too.

Is it important to take action?

Yes, if we manage

to do something effective.

I don't want to start something
just for pleasure

or to soothe my conscience.

So why start any action?

It seems to me, on that level
there's something to be done.

To place today's men and women

in a position to receive
the world as it is.

Not only to receive, but to act on it,

to have a hold.

That means you're leaving the university?

Leaving, if you want.

I'm breaking with an attitude
widespread in the university,

which is to consider the others,

the ones we address, as mere receivers.

It's true, and I wouldn't want to be...

Isn't what's happening in China important?

Of course it's important.

For example, closing the universities
I think is great.

Right, you think it's great.

But do you have an idea
what will happen afterwards?

They must re-open them.

The students are in the fields for now.

That reminds me of something.

Remember Natalie?

Yes, I do.

Her parents voted for Mendes France.

That doesn't matter.

Before I prepared for my exams
with you in September,

she and I picked peaches near Avignon.

Now it seems to me that

doing manual labour beforehand

helped me pass the exams.

That helped you understand what I said,

talking about philosophy?

A little. In June...

I think there's a link.

In June, I didn't do
anything physical and failed.

I think there's a possible link.

What's the conclusion?

You should pick peaches?

But you agree with me?

Something's wrong at the university.
Many things.

Of course.

It's apparent enough. So?

You agree education's the big problem?

It's one of the biggest problems.

So?

Shouldn't we start from scratch?

But how?

Close the universities, like in China.

You will do that yourself?

If the authorities aren't capable of it.

If necessary, I'll close them.

How?

I have an idea.

Tell me your idea,

if you can.

You see, what disgusts me is teaching.

It's always a question of class.
Culture is class culture.

You know the Tutankhamen exhibit.

Why do all the people run there? The gold.

Even workers act bourgeois
and go and see the gold.

Because if it was in paper,
they wouldn't bother.

I understand,

but your idea...

- Close the university.
- But how?

With bombs.

With bombs!

You're going to throw bombs?

THIS SITUATION

Once we kill students and teachers,
they'll stop going.

The university will close.

You're doing that alone?

Well, there are two or three of us.

Two or three... But...

But during the Algerian War,

when Djamila Bouhired blew up
cafes, you defended her

while all the press was against her.

All of France was against her.

That's right.

Only there was a difference.

Tell me if I'm wrong.

Explain it to me.

There was a whole people behind Djamila.

Men and women were already fighting.

It was for independence
and I, too, want mine.

You want independence.
How many of you want it that way?

You told me two or three.

But many people don't realise it yet.
And we think for them.

It's for them.

You think you can make
a revolution for others?

But you agree
working is part of the struggle.

But what is the struggle?

THIS SITUATION MUST CHANGE

Look, if I want to know

revolutionary theory and methods,

I must participate in a revolution.

You can participate,
but you can't invent one.

But if I want knowledge,
I need practical experience.

- Do you agree?
- I do.

Only revolutionary practice

implies a knowledge of the situation.

The situation is bad.

You know that, but do you know...

And that'll make it known.

Do you know a possible remedy?

But authentic knowledge
comes from direct experience.

First-hand experience.

Does it tell you the content
to give your action?

Because terrorism is only a start.

- Isn't it terrorism?
- Yes, it is.

So terrorism supposes underlying bases.

We've studied for two years.

For two years, and how have you studied it?

We live the problem.

You live it.

You're no longer a student.
You may know nothing.

I still know a few things.

No, I'm sorry.

You're right. I know a few things.
Not as much as you, of course.

- I'm in it.
- I don't suffer directly.

I suffer and I'm not alone.

But what's the point

of killing people if you don't know

what you'll do next,
if you don't know what terms...

But we know what we'll do.

So, what will you do afterwards?

I don't believe you know.

You only know the present system is awful

and you're impatient to end it.

Not awful, just bad.

What we do afterwards is not my work.

- You don't care.
- No, I don't.

Afterwards,
I'll continue studying the situation.

Where will you study it?

I'm only a worker producing revolution.

So be a worker and really work.

The way you're going
you won't last a week, as I see it.

- Why?
- You'll be arrested long before.

But you ran from the police.

And it lasted a long time...

There were many sympathizers
among the population,

because even those not quite in favour

of Algerian independence
didn't denounce us.

You have sympathizers, but they won't go

as far as mass murder.

And it'll be mass murder.

We need help since some Communists

are allied with revisionists
to denounce us.

- You didn't know.
- You're not prepared...

L'Humanite and Le Figaro are in league now.

Alright.

But your action will lead to nothing

if it isn't upheld by a group, a class,

by many men and women

who agree entirely and will pay...

Take the young Russian nihilists,
for example.

So?

They made bombs and criminal attempts.

And the 1917 revolution
came afterwards. In October.

You think you can compare Czarist Russia

and the situation now in France?

You call yourself Marxist-Leninist.

Well, even if we can't compare them,

we can draw a lesson from China.

But the lessons you draw are very abstract.

You don't draw lessons by superposing...

You think it's a mistake?

I think so.

You're heading towards a dead-end.

Some comrades

undertake their main task...

But not firmly in hand.

They can't do good work.

Committee Work Techniques, 13 March 1949.

It's not so much that.

I told you the arguments were valid

but all mixed up.

Marxism is first of all a science.

And there,

the arguments were a mess, off the cuff.

They were a bit like children.

Yes, you know the story
of the Egyptian children?

Then I'll tell you.

The Egyptians believed their language

was that of the gods.

One day, to prove it,

they put new-born babies in a house

far from any society

to see if they would learn to talk.

To speak Egyptian alone.

They came back 15 years later.

And what did they find?

The kids talking together,
but bleating like sheep.

They hadn't noticed

that next to the house was a sheep-pen.

For us, in that flat where we were,

Marxism-Leninism was a bit like the sheep.

Any volunteers?

OK. Me.

I believe in terror.

For me, whole revolutions

are made of terror.

Who is it?

A bombless revolutionary
isn't a revolutionary.

For the moment, we're only a few.

Tomorrow, we'll be many.

Tomorrow, I may no longer exist.

I am happy, I am proud of that.

Terrorism is not an act of liberation,

but a means to impose a programme.

Give me a bomb.

Give me a bomb.

Let's talk in the kitchen.

I suggest refusing Kirilov
and drawing lots.

You think he'll commit suicide?

I'm sure of it.

They say that, but when the time comes...

It's been going on for two weeks.

But he's serious this time.

Still, he didn't want to sign the paper.

Ask him again.

I tried all day yesterday.

You can't talk to him.

He doesn't want to.

He still has the revolver?

He's keeping it.

He'll give it up once he's shot himself.

Listen, Serge...

Give me the paper.

In my pocket.

Leave me alone.

Did you sign it?

I, Serge Dimitri Kirilov,

have murdered Michael Sholokov,

the Soviet Minister of Culture,

in Paris as the French government's guest.

The purpose of this murder was,

one, to stop the Soviet puppet
from inaugurating

the new university buildings

where he was to speak
before the puppet Malraux...

Go on.

Two, this is the first murder in a series.

Violence will be the answer
to the cultural suffocation

willingly imposed on the universities.

Serge Kirilov, 15 August 1967. Very good.

Do I wear the hat or not?

No, I won't.

You have the gun?

What's his name again?

Uh, Shokolov...

No, Sholokov.

You sure?

Yes, that's it.

But I can't ask his name.

Do as we already said, you ask for...

When he looks at the register,
you find Sholokov.

It will be upside down.

They write big, it's easy.

Alright.

So?

He opened the door and I fired. Come on.

Shit, shit, stop.

What is it?

- I made a mistake.
- How's that?

I read Sholokov upside down alright

and the room number 23.

But since it was upside down I inverted.

That made it 32, so I went to room 32.

You shot the guy in 32.

Go back.

But park in front this time.

We... Communists

not only...

do not fight...

against just wars...

but take an active part.

He committed suicide?

I didn't know.

Kirilov.

If Marxism-Leninism exists,

then anything goes.

That means we must pay...

Attention...

To the quantitative aspect of a problem...

and do quantitative analysis.

I'm fed up with this job!

You must participate in changing reality.

Maybe I'll return to Besancon.

Will you join the normal Communist Party?

Certainly, as soon as I find work.

I've applied at a laboratory.

And if it doesn't work out,

I'll go to East Germany.

They need chemists.

It's too bad about your quarrels.

I know it's stupid.

But you know, what I want...

is some quiet.

They were too fanatical.

The silence of infinite space.

It's not silence that scares me,
but sound and fury.

You never saw them again?

I don't know what became of them.

YEAR ZERO THEATRE

THE

THEATRICAL

VOCATION

OF

GUILLAUME MEISTER

Look, how funny.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO PEKING

It's disgusting. Mum will be furious.

They put up your cousin.

Maybe they killed the minister.

I hope inside is alright.

AND

Fruit and vegetables!

HIS

YEARS

Lettuce, tomatoes...

OF

Radishes and eggs: 10 cents!

One price, fruit and vegetables!

One lettuce: 10 cents.

APPRENTICESHIP

10 cents, one price, try your luck.

AND

OF

TRAVELS ON THE ROAD

I don't want to see anyone.

Don't be hurt if my zeal
breaks the secret of your solitude.

How long have you been so afraid?

Since Marcel left me.

Under what sign did you bring into
the world such an unhappy creature?

OF A TRUE

What'll I do?

Never doubt a god is fighting
for you. The sacrifice is over.

SOCIALIST THEATRE

Just join the Marxists.

I want vengeance.

- You'll lose.
- Get out of here.

But why leave?

Why be your own enemy?

I have too much pain.

Enough, stop. It's time to be logical.

LAST SCENE OF THE MOVIE

What shall I tell them?

I'll write to them.

You're crazy.

A dreamer.

OK, it's fiction,
but it brings me closer to reality.

Everything must be ready Saturday.
Coming, Blandine?

Think about it.

It was all thought out.

The end of summer
meant back to school for me.

A struggle for me and some comrades.

On the other hand, I was wrong.

I thought I'd made a leap forward.

And I realised

I'd made only the first timid step
of a long march.