À bientôt, j'espère

Marker, as a member of the revolutionary filmmaker group SLON, created an agitprop documentary that aimed to show workers as a class the value of the strike as such (this was made easier by the fact that the specific strike depicted in the film was largely unsuccessful...). The film aimed to strengthen solidarity and build a collective class consciousness based on the understanding of the incompatibility between capitalists and the working class: "The real result of that strike was not a 3 or 4% rise but the education of young workers, discovering the true identity of their struggle." Marker allows the actors of the strike to speak for themselves, choosing moments when the workers and union members reach similar conclusions. I have two comments on this: 1) The idea that behind the workers' nominal desires (for wage improvement/maintaining current bonuses/fear of layoffs, etc.) lies the "true" desire for overall social change can be seen as either the authors' naivety or as an understanding that this hidden "truth" of the workers' struggle does not exist until it is brought to light through ideological struggle. 2) Marker was undoubtedly skillful, and thus his films never descend to mediocrity; however, even in this film, it does have limitations that can be observed in most of the then "revolutionary" French productions: constant talking, blah blah blah, talking (although Marker does allow the workers, who speak honestly and simply, to have their voices heard, which may not have been so distant from the target audience of the same social class). The cherry on top is the spontaneous student films during/after May 1968, where the viewer only witnesses youthful intellectual chatter, which only another convinced, left-wing student or intellectual is willing and capable of understanding... (17.05.2016)