Noted filmmaker and media critic Peter Watkins directs this mammoth six-hour-long look at the legendary Paris Commune of 1871. Following the humiliating defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War, the reign of Napoleon III collapsed in the resulting public foment. While a new regime headed under the Government of National Defense tried to shore up power, a band of commoners took the reigns of power for themselves and created the Paris Commune, a government defiantly separate from the state operating under a sort of proto-Marxist ethos. Inevitably, the Commune was brutally suppressed by French troops. Watkins' treatment of the event juxtaposes the present with the past -- modern day CNN-style reporting with historical fact. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival.~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

GENRE: Drama
MPAA RATING: No Rating
RUN TIME: 5h 45m
RELEASE DATE: January 01, 2000
STARRING: Eliane Annie Adalto, Pierre Barbieux, Bernard Bombeau
DIRECTOR(S): Peter Watkins
PRODUCER(S):
WRITER(S): Agathe Bluysen, Peter Watkins
STUDIO: Shellac