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Film Reviews | Regular Feature fui, as it reveals how a combination of ideas, technology, images and editing have created what many of us see as reality. Linda Alkana California State University, Long Beach lalk@csulb.edu The Internationale A thirty-minute documentary produced and directed by Peter Miller, The Internationale traces the cultural history of the stirring anthem that has offered inspiration to social and political activists for more than a century now. "The Internationale," as Miller's film conveys expertly, is a song that captures the complex and often paradoxical negotiations between the collective and the individual, inspiring a range of emotions as broad as the scope defined by its invocation at various historical moments. What comes most clearly into focus as a result of Miller's keen vision is a view of "The Internationale" as song at once tangible and transcendent, specific and universal, and, like all enduring cultural forms, perpetually relevant despite the vagaries of history. Eugene Pottier wrote the lyrics to "The Internationale" in 1871, punctuating the fall of the Paris Commune with a determined cry of resilience; in 1873, Pierre Degeyter set the words to music. Thus was born the virtual soundtrack for social protest movements spanning from the 1912 Wobbly strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to the intensified labor organization fueled by the Great Depression in America to the inspired yet ill-fated studentuprising in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989. Probably most famously, or infamously, "The Internationale" underwent an ironic transition from anti-establishment rallying cry to ideological apparatus, serving as the national anthem of the Soviet Union from 1917 until its downfall. Miller employs montage to document this expansive cultural history, creating an impressive "performance" made possible by edited footage of singing protestors representing successive historical periods. Constructing a frame, Miller returns to this technique near the end of the film, this time featuring the array of commentators interviewed inthe documentary singing (the term applies loosely in some cases) verses from the song's rousing opening stanza. This framing device is indicative of Miller's attempt to account for his subject as both a clarion call to the masses and a source of individual reflection and introspection, as conveyed through the moving personal testimony that precedes the commentators' rendition. Although reverent, Miller's film is by no means a panegyric , for it acknowledges what folk singer Billy Bragg rightly calls the "baggage" acquiredby "The Internationale" overtime. Bragg cites this condition as impetus for his bold effort to modernize the lyrics; his revised version debuted at the Vancouver Folk Festival in 1989, shortly after the Tiananmen Square massacre that largely inspired him. In this instance, and indeed in its entirety, Miller's documentary focuses a keen eye on an inherent tension in its subject measurable in terms of text and context. Labor activist and commentator Dorothy Healey, for instance, recalls that the song's image ofaworldwhere "no more traditions' chains shallbindus" offered for social activists in the 1930s both an idealistic vision of progress and arealisticreminder ofthe lackthereof. Informedby a Utopian vision ofharmony yet bound indelibly to a Soviet militaristic aesthetic, the anthem has confirmed the failure to ensure lasting peace and social justice as often as it has rekindled the dream that such a goal is achievable. As Miller's The Internationale makes clear, this ironic tension has become even more acute in an era of triumphant global capitalism, thus calling into question the relevance and meaning of a socialist anthem in what many have termed a post-Marxist era. Focused on this dilemma, Miller tellingly features the observations of an American Gen-X socialist who admits to finding the lyrics initially "corny" and then accessible only through a postmodern litany of historical references. Following immediately is a moving and haunting illustration of "The Internationale's" staying power centered on the Tiananmen Square protests. This segment features shots of singing protestors —sacrificial lambs, we know inretrospect—interspersed with thoughtful commentary by one of the leading dissidents, Li Lu, who confides that the words of "The Internationale" tend to escape him, while "the melody of the song always calls me to a very special mood." Cognizant of "The Internationale's" precarious position in contemporary...

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