Jean-Marie Straub pushes this musicality of blocks to a paroxysmal extreme, mixing blocks of time (40 years separate the various extracts that are going to be used, and what is to be filmed), blocks of text (Malraux, Fortini, Vittorini, Hölderlin) and blocks of language (French, Italian, German), and from this ruckus emerges the history of the world, yes, History with a capital H, and from the same movement, the political hope of its being overtaken. So this is an adventure film, about the Human adventure, still one that is always, in the end, overtaken by Nature.
Where to watch
Not streaming anywhere
Not on any streaming service in United States, and not available to rent.
Your rating
Your review
Cast
17 people
Aldo Fruttuosi
Ventura 'Faccia Cattiva'
Also in
The Return of the Prodigal Son
Incantati
Rosalba Curatola
Siracusa
Also in
Workers, Peasants
Incantati
Hanns Eisler
Franco Fortini
Himself
Also in
Fortini/Cani
Friedrich Hölderlin
Jean-Baptiste Legard
Christophe Clavert
Andreas von Rauch
Empedokles
Also in
The Death of Empedocles
Black Sin
André Malraux
Also in
Les Deux mémoires
Amiens, Ville Ouverte
Vladimir Baratta
Pausanias
Also in
The Death of Empedocles
Black Sin
Dimitri Haulet
Elio Vittorini
Also in
Romeo and Juliet
Jean-Marie Straub Director · Franco Fortini Author André Malraux Author
First release August 15, 2014 · Produced in France, Switzerland · Languages French, German, Italian
Production
Andolfi
Production
Belva GmbH
Production
CNC
Production
Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée
Production
France · Switzerland
Produced in
Languages
Original title
Kommunisten
Original language
German
Spoken on screen
French · German · Italian
Release dates
Switzerland · August 15, 2014
Locarno Film Festival
France · August 15, 2014
Theatrical
No release date listed for United States.
Australia
August 4, 2015 · Melbourne International Film Festival
Italy
December 12, 2014 · Turin premiere
Portugal
November 13, 2014 · Lisbon Film Festival
South Korea
May 2, 2015 · Jeonju International Film Festival
More from Jean-Marie Straub
Other films they directed, best known first.
If you liked Communists
Picks that share its genres, themes, cast and crew.
Some details come from TheTVDB.