UNIT 11

JAMES QUIGLEY

FILM STUDIES

NWRC
HND Creative Media

14 January 16

Marxist Film Theory

Socialist Realism to Social Realism via the Week End.

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Marxist Film theory is possibly the longest established of any of the theoretical studies of film
text, having its foundation in the silent era of
Russian cinema.
Taking inspiration from the ideas of Karl Marx,
who wrote the Communist manifesto in 1848,
Marxist film text has tried to represent his ideals
on film since the Bolshevik revolution in Russia
1917, and tried to convey his concepts to as wide
an audience as possible ever since.
Marxs philosophy suggested that ..the history of society, is the history of class
struggles.1 And living in an age where nation states were still often ruled on a
medieval construct in the form of Monarchies, Empires, Kaisers and Tsars, supported by an aristocracy and a growing burgeoise middle class, all living off
the toil of the masses (i.e working class, peasentry, and the poor), in what Marx
believed was a morally corrupt capitalist system, he further suggested thatEverybody is equal.
Capitalism is an evil and corrupting force.
Government should protect its people, not oppress them.2
1Marx,K
2Marx,K

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This was all in direct opposition to the existing world order of Monarchic,
Autocratic, Imperialist governance that existed in many countries at the time.
Marx believed there was an alternative which could lead to the emancipation of
the working classes, writing in his Communist manifesto Workers of all lands unite,
You have nothing to lose but your chains.3
His revolutionary ideas of class struggle would inspire many across the
globe to rebel against the established order, though in his lifetime the nearest he
came to seeing his vision realised was in the rise of the Communards in Paris in
1871.
However after his death in 1883 his philosophy continued to inspire many
throughout the world, leading Ian Hunt director of Flinders University to say So as long as there are Capitalists,Marx will remain relevant.4

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These ideas would greatly influence the
Bolsheviks who would seize power during the Russian revolution of 1917.
Having assasinated the ruling Tsar and
his family they would establish a government of Soviet (workers council)
states leading to the formation of the

3 Marx,K
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Hunt,I

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USSR, with the intention of putting Marxs theories into practice and rasing
the proletariat up from the shackles of capitalism. To this end they would use
film as a propaganda tool to spread Marxs philosophy and ideas around economics to the people of Russia, with the intention to inspire workers in other nations to rise up as Marx had suggested.
Supervised by the new Soviet government, films were produced that idealised the working classes and the part they were playing in the creation of the
new Socialist utopia that was envisioned. With regulation from the new central
government in Moscow, the nationalised film industry began to produce a new
form of cinema, which espoused the benefits of socialism, the nobility of the
worker, and the beauty of the ordinary.
Initially leaning towards documentary the new text would further highlight
socialist ideals with realism at its core, in what was to become known as the
SOCIALIST Realist approach, illustrated by its portrayal of the technology of
the industrial age to high art, suggesting it could be a means of peasent/worker
emancipation rather than exploitation as witnessed under the capitalist system.
Unashamedly politicised, the narrative would portray the ordinary lives of
the Russian worker into heroic status as part of the collective pursuing the socialist utopia. This was in direct contrast to Americas film industry at the time,
which the Soviets were deeply sceptical and suspicious of, believing its individualistic narrative perpetuated the corrupt ideology of capitalism. The film of
the new Soviet Republic would directly challenge Hollywoods dominant perspective, often using no main protagonist on screen instead choosing to present
a group/communal/collective perspective, believing FRATERNITY to be one of
the highest ideals of Marxs philosophy and founding ideals of the new USSR.
Although the text in these Soviet films of the 1920s often did not reveal an
on screen protagonist, they were often driven by the creative vision and political

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ideallism of a new breed of directors. One of whom, Sergei Eisenstein

(who had previously been an engineer in the Red Army), had suggested a new
editing form, which he called the montage of attractions in an article in the review
Lef. This new approach he suggested would involve the insertion of impact images, independent from the action, and positioned in a non-linear way, in
whichever time-frame would engender the maximum psychological impact on
the audience to provoke a strong emotional response, and guide them through
the intended message.
This concept was much to the fore in Eisensteins first film in 1924, Strike,
which told the story of the repression
of a strike by Tsarist soldiers. Employing his montage of attractions
theory in the editing process, Eisenstein intertwined images of workers
being decimated by machine guns,
with those of cattle being butchered
in a slaughterhouse, the metaphor being less than subtle, but powerful nonetheless.
He again used the montage technique to
great effect in 1925, in his masterpiece
Battleship Potemkin, most famously in the
Odessa steps footage, which celebrated
the mutiny that took place when a Russian
naval crew rebelled against their officers,
in the uprising of 1905.

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While not addressing the concept of Marxist economics the Potemkin

story allowed Eisenstein to suggest that a just social cause can lead the way to
revolution, the failed uprising of 1905 proving to be a catalyst for the

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successful revolution in 1917. The resulting film was released in Moscow
in 1925, in competition with a glossy Hollywood production of Robin Hood, starring Douglas Fairbanks -The Soviet government hoped it would earn more than
Robin Hood in its opening week, as this would be a symbol of the revitalization
of Russian arts after the revolution.5
Although it did not take more than the Hollywood production, it was still
hugely successful and highly acclaimed, so much so that years later it would be
voted the Best Film ever made, by an international poll of critics in 1958. It
was however not well received in all quarters though, and was rejected a UK
cinema certificate by the BBFC, such was the fear of the film inspiring working
class insurrection in Britain. The ban was imposed until 1954, when it finally
received classification and released with an X certificate.
Commissioned by the Soviet government to honour the tenth anniversary
of the Russian revolution and following the success of Battleship Potemkin, Eisensteins next project October, or alternately known as, 10 Days That Shook The
World, drew its inspiration from the revolution in 1917, and chronicled the res-

5 IMDb

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ulting shifts in power with the deposing of the provisional government, and the Soviets being voted
into power at congress.
With its storming of the Winter Gardens re-enacted on an epic scale, lionising Vladimir Lenin
the Bolshevik leader, Eisensteins version of
events would become the source material for
many historians researching the revolution, as
little actual photographic/film evidence of the actual

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events existed.This would enhance the text as a tool for propaganda, and
his contemporaries in Russia would also follow suit with Dziga Vertov directing
Three Songs About Lenin in 1934, a documentary that paid tribute to Lenin the
peoples hero, recognising his influence on Russian history and culture. Vertov
too was part of the Russian montage school, and gained fame for his KinoPravda works, having directed one of its most experimental films, Man With A
Movie Camera,1929, in which he highlighted the beauty of the industrialised society, again espousing the virtues of the Marxist revolution through SOCIALIST Realist text.
Vertov too theorised over Film text and proposed a cinema of fact in
keeping with a SOCIALIST Realist approach .. insisting in various manifestos, that the cinema of the future will not
be that of stars, and of fiction, but a cinema of facts6

6iep

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To this end Vertov would only shoot scenes from society itself, choosing
not to employ actors, scenarios or title cards on screen in keeping with the SOCIALIST Realism that had been established in the documentary approach to
Marxist film, with the pursuit of reality as its goal, believing this was the best
way to show how society and socialism work. This approach would make the
main protagonist the director himself, and allowed for more control over the
resulting message of any film text.
The resulting messages of
these inspired Russian films
did indeed have the effect that
Marx had suggested when they

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were translated into other languages, most notably Chinese.
With their narrative highlighting class struggle, they would go on to influence Chinese cinema of the 1930s
and 40s, inspiring the establishment of a left wing (Progressive) film tradition
within China. These films along with Marxs Communist manifesto, which had
been translated into Chinese and published in 1906, would lead the way for the
foundation of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949, modelled to a large degree
on the system of government established in Russia. The two powers signing a
peace agreement leading to the formation of a Socialist bloc in the East.
Chinas Film industry of the 1930s also became noted for its focus on
class struggle, China having a huge population with peasent origins, would also
choose to focus on common people and the oppressed for its narrative, making a
family of silk farmers the subjects of the 1933 film Spring Silkworms, often
recognised as the first film in the leftist movement of Chinese cinema. The fol-

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lowing year Director Wu Yongang would release The Goddess, a tale of a

lowly prostitute not even given a name in the film, being ostracised from her
own community as she tries to make a life for her and her son. And so with its
focus on Socialist Realism the influence from Russian Marxist films was quite
evident, in what was to be termed the first Golden Age of Chinese cinema had
begun.
In Russia Lenin had stated Of all the Arts, Film is the most important7

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and throughout the 1930s there
was a power struggle for control
of the major studios in China, with the Communists and Nationalists both vying
for power over them, both sides knowing what a powerful propaganda tool
films could be, especially in a vast country trying to transform itself from a
feudal society to a modern nation state. While many of the peasant population
may have been illiterate, the message of a film could be conveyed without the
need to be able to read, and so the desire to control the dominant narrative was
an ongoing battle.
Three Film companies, Mingxing, Lianhua, Yihua represented the Left
Tendency work of studios..This was evidenced in 1950 when the government
not only established firm control over the film industry nationwide, it also

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owned and operated 3 major Film studios, producing 80 per cent of the countrys total output.8
European cinema would also be influenced by Marxist film theory in the
1950s and 60s, also
drawing attention to
class conciousness and
exploring Marxist
ideals. In France, director Jean-Luc Godard
previously having been
a renowned Film critic
with a deep knowledge
of film, would become
the most influential member of the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague).

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His work reflects a fervent knowledge of Film history,
a comprehensive understanding of existensial and Marxist philosophy.9
Godard would employ radical editing and be somewhat subversive in a bid
to heighten class consciousness and promote Marxist ideas as in Soviet and
Chinese film, however he would offer the text quite often as parody to espouse
Marxs rhetoric, rather than the straight forward educational approach of state
sponsored SOCIALIST Realism.
His 1960 film Breathless which Godard edited with a myriad of jump cuts,
directly inspired by Vertovs Soviet film Man with a Camera- which was almost

8 Zhou,J

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entirely made up of jump cuts, showed his Marxist influences and would give the
film a kinetic energy that would help to propel the film forward.
In his 1967 black comedy Week End Godard would cite Marxs name with
other characters such as Jesus Christ further romanticising the Marx rhetoric, in
a film that would look with disdain on the nihilistic bourgeoise consumer society. Godard had definetly captured the zeitgeist that existed in France at the
time as his viewpoint acted as a premonition/antagonist for the civil unrest that
swept through France a year later. The student protests in May were also directed against capitalism/consumerism and the establishment, and were followed
by trade unionists embarking on a series of wildcat strikes involving 11 million workers, which brought the entire capitalist system of France to a grinding
halt. In a case of life imitating Art, these events highlighted the expansion of
Marxist ideals through the language of Film and other mediums into Europe.
Godard like Eisenstein
was also innovative in his
filming technique,

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with changing technology
allowing him to shoot
handheld and more freely,
he would often use panning and fast/slow tracking. and employ fly on the wall sequences, and characters directly addressing
the audience down the lens, famously suggesting that Film = TRUTH 24 times
a second.10 again a further reference to some of his Marxist film influences.

10 Jean-Luc Godard

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The fly on the wall aesthetic was also employed across the English channel in a transposition of the nouvelle vague to British film . In what was to become known as kitchen sink dramas with its roots in the Social realist cultural
movement that existed at the time, iconic films would emerge in the 50s/60s
from Britain that would tackle head on class connsciousness and the conflict it
engendered, while addressing other topical social issues of the day.
Richard Burtons performance of an angry young man in the film Look
Back in Anger, 1958, had been adapted from the stage play of the same name,
and so powerful had been its inspiration that one critic commented on its intensity of class hatred, while Kenneth Tynan wrote that the play . Look back in Anger - presents post war youth as it really is .11
With the release of Room at the Top and in 1960 Saturday Night /
Sunday Morning, British working class life was being put centre stage like
never before and tackled issues around class, deprivation, sex and its real life
consequences (pregnancy/abortion), money worries, and relationships, all in a
more real and sometimes raw approach than that applied by Hollywood.
This Social realist approach took some of its form from the SOCIALIST
Realism of the Soviets, and some from Britains own film history in documentary dating back most notably to 1902s A Reservist Before the War and after

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the War directed by

James Williamson. A story about servicemen re-

turning home to a life of unemployment after the Boer War. With the film proving to be an early proponent of realisms value as social protest, Williamson
later stated that -

11 Tynan,K

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. realism has been Britains richest gift to world cinema.12

One of the most famous proponents of this new form in Britain established
himself directing TV plays and dramas in the mid 1960s, Ken Loach offerings
Up the Junction, Cathy come Home and Poor Cow would be set in predominantly working class environments and situations, and his hard hitting and
naturalistic approach would strip away the veneer of the swinging sixties
presented by the mainstream. This narrative has remained his niche and has
lead to a long filmmaking career that continues to this day, with Cathy come
Home being voted the most influential TV programme of all time by
Broadcst in 2005.
Loachs influence can be seen in many of the
works that inhabit our screens today, none
more so than in that of Shane Meadows.
The application of the Social Realist aesthetic is prominent in the text of his This is
England series, addressing the social
breakdown that had taken part in Northern
England in the 80s/90s , with huge unemployment figures due to the demise of established industries such as mining the potteries

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car making, and ship building, which decimated working class communities, again in opposition to the yuppie narrative
that was perpetuated at the time in Thatchers Britain.

12 Williamson,J

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Although set retrospectively the most recent installment of the series was
aired in the age of austerity after the global Banking crisis, at a time many
felt the working classes were once more under attack from a conservative establishment disguising right - wing ideology under the cloak of economic policy.
The feeling that the poor were once again paying for the greed of the rich in the
form of the bank bailouts would lead to the establishment of new political
parties throughout Europe like Syriza in Greece, taking their influence and inspiration from a left wing ideology not too dis-similar from that of pre - revolutionary Russia, with an anti - capitalist agenda.
With Britains dis - enfranchised working class very much at the heart of
Meadows films he too would use unknown actors and real locations - stripping
away any superfluous gloss from his production, and would draw the audience
into the world of his protagonist by choosing their frontrooms" as his set, with
flat lighting lending to the sense of hopelessness and gloom felt by some of the
characters.
Effectively a coming of age
story set over the passage of
many years and numerous installments, the films dealt with
the issues of a group of working class kids trying to find
their way in a post industrialised Britain that had its foundations undermined by their own
government.

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Meadows series would take the audience on a journey where many recognised their own youth through his accurate representations of a working
class existence, the sense of belonging and identity felt within a youth sub - culture, first loves - relationship issues, family dynamics, deprivation, substance/
alcohol abuse and violence. Hard hitting and raw, no subject was off limits including Rape and Murder in a series that would become hugely successful, and
was a direct descendent of the kitchen sink dramas of the sixties.
With a lorry driver dad and a mum who worked in a fish and chip shop,
Meadows used his own background as a template. With much of his work semi
- autobiographical, his knowledge allowing him an insight to the environment
and characters he was creating and garnering a great deal of credibility to his
mise en scene, script and plots.

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Previous productions 1997 Twenty Four Seven
1999 A Room for Romeo Brass
2002 Once Upon a Time in the Midlands
2004 Dead Mans Shoes
- would all deal with issues inspired by Meadows working class roots and
would be set in similar locations. These gritty slices of modern day British
working class life would reveal the many layers of a community. and explore
every emotion from heartfelt grief, rage and fear to euphoric comedic episodes
and heartfelt love.
Like his predecessors in the Social Realism genre, facing challenging issues head on and not allowing anything unsightly to be glossed over would be a
characteristic of Meadows productions, and steering away from escapism

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means that his work asks questions of the audience, and some uncomfortable ones at that. For me he has become an Auter of Social Realism in the modern age, a time when television seems to want to denegrate the working classes
and the poor with their poverty porn while not asking the questions of how we
arrived at the situation these people now find themselves in, Meadows addresses
some of the causes around failed Thatcherite policies and their aftermath,
namely the devastation they left in their wake destroying the fabric of long established working class communities.
And so it seems that coming up to the centenarary of the Russian revolution Marxist ideals are once more to the fore in world affairs and cultural expression, having inspired many through Eisensteins early montage silent films,
a legacy has been established through Chinese cinema and the French Nouvelle
Vague and the wider european Film
schools to what we see today in British
Social Realism.

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Revolutions are the locomotives of historyKarl Marx.

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REFERENCES
1/ 2/ & 3/ Marx,K & Engels,F Communist Manifesto, Penguin
classics,London ,2015.

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4/ Hunt,I C:\Users\qui15093445\Desktop viewed 14/1/2016

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5/ IMDb

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015648/trivia

viewed on 31/12/2015

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6 / Vertov,D

http://www.iep.utm.edu/filmcont/
viewed on 30/12/2015

7/ Lenin,V

http://wikis.la.utexas.edu/theory/page/marxism-film-

studie

viewed on2/1/2016

8/ Zhou,J 2013, Chinese v Western Perspectives, Lexington Books, Plymouth, UK.

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9/ Luc Godard,J

http://www.newwavefilm.com/french-new-wave-

encyclopedia/jean-luc-godard

viewed on 31/12/2015

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10/ Luc Godard,J http://filmschoolrejects.com/features/6-filmmaking-tips-jean-luc-godard.php

viewed 2/1/2015

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11/ Tynan,K Look back in Anger - John Osborne, Faber and Faber,
London,1957.

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12/ Williamson,J http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1037898/

viewed on 30/12/2015

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Ac dolor ac adipiscing amet bibendum nullam, lacus molestie ut libero nec, diam et,
pharetra sodales, feugiat ullamcorper id tempor id vitae. Mauris pretium aliquet, lectus tincidunt. Porttitor mollis imperdiet libero senectus pulvinar. Etiam molestie mauris ligula
laoreet, vehicula eleifend. Repellat orci erat et, sem cum, ultricies sollicitudin amet eleifend
dolor nullam erat, malesuada est leo ac. Varius natoque turpis elementum est. Duis montes,
tellus lobortis lacus amet arcu et. In vitae vel, wisi at, id praesent bibendum libero faucibus
porta egestas, quisque praesent ipsum fermentum tempor. Curabitur auctor, erat mollis sed,
turpis vivamus a dictumst congue magnis. Aliquam amet ullamcorper dignissim molestie,
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erat felis wisi a risus. Justo fermentum id. Malesuada eleifend, tortor molestie, a a vel et.
Mauris at suspendisse, neque aliquam faucibus adipiscing, vivamus in. Wisi mattis leo suscipit nec amet, nisl fermentum tempor ac a, augue in eleifend in venenatis, cras sit id in vestibulum felis in, sed ligula. In sodales suspendisse mauris quam etiam erat, quia tellus convallis
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integer molestie, amet suspendisse morbi, amet maecenas, a maecenas mauris neque proin
nisl mollis. Suscipit nec ligula ipsum orci nulla, in posuere ut quis ultrices, lectus primis
vehicula velit hasellus lectus, vestibulum orci laoreet inceptos vitae, at consectetuer amet et
consectetuer. Congue porta scelerisque praesent at, lacus vestibulum et at dignissim cras urna,
ante convallis turpis duis lectus sed aliquet, at et ultricies. Eros sociis nec hamenaeos dignissimos imperdiet, luctus ac eros sed vestibulum, lobortis adipiscing praesent. Nec eros eu ridiculus libero felis.
Donec arcu risus diam amet sit. Congue tortor risus vestibulum commodo nisl, luctus
augue amet quis aenean maecenas sit, donec velit iusto, morbi felis elit et nibh. Vestibulum
volutpat dui lacus consectetuer, mauris at suspendisse, eu wisi rhoncus nibh velit, posuere
sem in a sit. Sociosqu netus semper aenean suspendisse dictum, arcu enim conubia leo nulla

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ac nibh, purus hendrerit ut mattis nec maecenas, quo ac, vivamus praesent metus viverra ante.
Natoque sed sit hendrerit, dapibus velit molestiae leo a, ut lorem sit et lacus aliquam. Sodales
nulla ante auctor excepturi wisi, dolor lacinia dignissim eros condimentum dis pellentesque,
sodales lacus nunc, feugiat at. In orci ligula suscipit luctus, sed dolor eleifend aliquam dui, ut
diam mauris, sollicitudin sed nisl lacus.

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