23 Apr 2008 – 20:00 – Can Dialectics Break Bricks? By René Viénet
La Dialectique Peut-Elle Casser Des Briques?, in English, “Can Dialectics Break Bricks?”, is a 1973 Situationist film produced by the French director René Viénet which explores the resolution of conflict through dialogue as opposed to violence.
The film uses a much older martial arts film (“The Crush” from Doo Kwang Gee) for its visuals which has been dubbed over by the filmmakers in an attempt at detournement. The concept and motivation of this film was to adapt a bourgeois film into a radical critique of cultural hegemony and thus into tools of subversive revolutionary ideals.
The Narrative is based upon a conflict between the proletarian and bureaucrats within state capitalism. The proletarians enlist their dialectics and radical subjectivity to fight their oppressors whilst the bureaucrats defend themselves using a combination of bribery and violence. The film is noted for its humorous approach to this serious subject matter.
The film also contains many references to revolutionaries who thought and fought for the realisation of a post-capitalist world, including Marx, Bakunin, and Wilhelm Reich. Also Subplots dealing with issues of gender equality, alienation, trade unionism, May 1968, and the Situationist themselves are riddled throughout the film.
The conclusions reached by the filmmakers are that those who would use violence against dialogue will always prevail as they are incapable of following the rational argument.
Can Dialectics Break Bricks
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