40 years after and beyond 1968

On the 10th of May 1968 the Asian Football Confederation’s Cup kicked off in Tehran. The very same day 367 people were wounded in riots in Paris. In France – and more generally in Europe, images of the Parisian barricades are embedded in people’s minds. ‘May 68’ stands for an era when student demonstrations turned into a cultural revolution which spread throughout many countries of the world.

At that time filmmakers were active in these social movements. Even when they weren’t directly reporting the events, they were mirroring the main convulsions of the period, like the war in Vietnam (Far from Vietnam by Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker, and others; 1967) or the feminist movement (L’une chante, l’autre pas by Agnès Varda; 1976). However, by no means did the spirit of ‘68 end on the 31st of December 1968. In fact, it continues to persevere, even four decades later.

So what about the relationships between cinema - fiction or documentary - and ‘68 today? A bunch of feature films have been keen on pointing out the “romantic-revolutionary” aspect of the movement. Bernardo Bertolluci’s The Dreamers (2004) and Olivier Ducastel’s Nés en 68 (2008) are two examples of fictions whose main focus is the changing relationships between men and women. On the other hand, there is a whole new slate of documentary films appearing for the 40th anniversary of 1968. So it comes as no surprise if several films of the festival share the thematic this year.

A shocking example of personal drama related to the revolts of 1968 is Hear my cry (1991), by Polish director Maciej J. Drygas. The film tells the story of a Polish clerk, Ryszard Siwiec, who set himself on fire during a festival celebrating the harvest in Warsaw in September 1968. This desperate act is obviously to be interpreted as a protest against communist totalitarianism.

Also focusing on the violence prevalent during the period, Jean-Luc Magneron investigates the unfriendly relationships between activists and policemen in his documentary May 68, La belle ouvrage (2008). The film starts with a TV speech of General Charles de Gaulle honouring the public forces. Magneron follows this opening scene with a series of archive footages and interviews of people - journalists, doctors, students, psychologists, etc., who were witnesses and/or victims of cruel police brutalities.

Patrick Rotman’s 68 (2008) does not only focus on the riots in France, but also on the events in the USA, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and Latin America. Rotman establishes the connections between the war in Vietnam and the student demonstrations all over the world, and between the Afro-Americans’ fight for equal rights and the waves of protest. 68 is a successful mixture of political reportage and atmospheric creative documentary, underlined by a soundtrack typical of the times. Rotman’s conclusion is that all of these movements were initiated and carried on by youths who had read the same books, shared the same icons and were united by the same certitudes. It was time for change, it was time for revolution.

Rotman, a French historian and filmmaker, had lived 1968. So had Jean-Luc Magneron. One could get the impression that the process of commemoration is mainly undertaken by the people who experienced this explosive year. A different approach is chosen by Simon Brook, a quite young filmmaker, in his recent documentary Generations 68 (not shown at the festival). Like others, he has interviewed people involved in the revolts, but he only uses their voices for supporting archive material. Brook’s point is that for giving the feeling that 1968 was a movement of young people, old faces shouldn’t appear on screen. It will be interesting to see what kinds offilms will be made for the 50th anniversary in 2018, because by then an even bigger gap will separate the generations: the elderly people who actually experienced the events and the new generation for whom 1968 will only appear as another page of history.

Nina Henke