Cue The Internationale.
Last night, I attended a showing of The Red Detachment of Women at The Pacific Film Archives, a film valorizing the courageous struggles of the proletariat as they unbind themselves from the fetters of imperialism and class oppression through the medium of dance. Down with imperialist swine and long live The Republic! I mean...
Dubious as its message is (it was after all, intended to promote the propaganda of the Communist Party) I was amazed by the film's extraordinary beauty (the kind of seductive beauty overlaying the films of Leni Reifenstahl, Dziga Vertov, Sergei Eisenstein, Mikhail Kalatozov, etc.), particularly the scenes among the peasantry, in which a regiment of the Red Army lope and pas de chat in solidarity with their rustic brethren, displaying the harmonious cooperation which thrives under the benevolent hand of Mao Zedong. The colors in those scenes were breathtaking and reminded me of a fascinating book of Communist propaganda posters I came across by chance and thumbed through once. Here are a few posters I found on the 'nets (I believe the girl in the third poster is wielding a molotov cocktail.):
No comments:
Post a Comment