Review of La Chinoise (1967) by Jean G — 04 Sep 2008

A politically-loaded film - in fact it focuses less on the linear story than on the ideological discussions. It's basically about a cell of four/five French student Communists who debate several things after introducing themselves, like the relation between art and politics, why the Americans attack Communist North Vietnam but deal diplomatically and economically with Communist USSR, whether Communists should engage in a violent revolution or in democratic party-building, etc... while the cell splits according to one major disagreement.

Their positions, from my position, vary from the naive to the unrealistic. For example, when they consider why the Americans attack Communist North Vietnam but deal diplomatically with Communist USSR, they see an ideological reason behind it - the USSR, this is after Stalin, is no longer truly Communist and thus no longer a real threat to the US, whereas Vietnam is still truly Communist and still a threat. They fail to consider the scenario in power quanta - that while both the USSR and North Vietnam were considered a threat, the USSR was equal (give or take) in power to the US and that North Vietnam is far weaker in power to the US. One threat has to be tolerated and kept at a distance diplomatically, but the other can be dealt with directly.

They also tend too much towards comparing capitalist society to Nazi society. For example, they compare a Club Med hotel to a concentration camp. I can understand this, but they take it too far. How many people do you think are gassed at Club Med?