Rosa Luxemburg

(Movie Review)

Background/ My History With this Movie
I'm breaking my own rules a bit with this on.  Usually I only review movies that I watch for the first time.  This movie I saw once before back in college.

It was on VHS in the public library.  I stumbled upon it one day just while browsing.  I hadn't known there was a Rosa Luxemburg movie prior to stumbling upon it, but I was very interested in Rosa Luxemburg the historical figure, so I grabbed it and watched it at home.

I don't really remember much from that first viewing--at least I don't remember much about the movie itself.  I vaguely remember sitting in the apartment watching it on a Summer afternoon, and I remember feeling slightly bored at points.  But I don't remember the movie itself.  The only part I really remember is the ending.

The other day, I stumbled upon this movie while I was surfing Youtube.  Some kind soul has put the whole thing on Youtube, and it is now available to watch for anyone who wants it.

Rosa Luxemburg



I decided to re-watch.  And, since I remember so little from the first time I saw it, I decided to treat it as a new movie, and review it accordingly.

The Review
This is a 1986 movie from West Germany. (In German, but with English subtitles).  It's good for what it is, but it is far removed from the style and pacing of a modern Hollywood movie.

It also doesn't have anywhere near the budget of a modern Hollywood movie.  Most of the movie feels like more of a stage play than an epic Hollywood movie, and the set design and even the film quality remind me of a BBC television miniseries from the 1970s or 1980s.
Consequently the film doesn't show the big set pieces of war and revolution.  I suspect probably because they didn't have the budget for it.
...although according to Wikipedia, the big war and revolution set pieces were not what the director was interested in anyway.
Wikipedia states that director Margarethe von Trotta's films have a common theme:

Von Trotta has been called "the world’s leading feminist filmmaker." The predominant aim of her films is to create new representations of women. Her films are concerned with relationships between and among women (sisters, best friends, etc.), as well as with relationships between women and men, and involve political setting

With Rosa Luxemburg specifically:

 Through her cinematic vision, von Trotta returns to the theme of "the political and the personal," giving fair attention to both Rosa Luxemburg's personal life as a female in society and her political life as a "public revolutionary."

Consequently, the film focuses as much on Rosa Luxemburg's personal life as her political life.
I've complained about this tendency in the past with other - biopics, but in this case it didn't bother me that much.  The personal details didn't seem like they were interfering with the story the film wanted to tell--they were the story that the film wanted to tell.  (It could also be that because this was my second viewing, I was prepared to be more patient).

The historical/political parts of the film are here as well, though.
One of the things I remember from my college history courses is that the Socialist International fell apart because of the outbreak of World War I. Socialists were supposed to support international solidarity instead of nationalist wars, but in the war hysteria of 1914, most socialists supported the war efforts of their own country, and the international solidarity fell apart.  (Nowadays we remember socialist and anarchist figures like Eugene Debs, Emma Goldman, and Rosa Luxemburg who went to prison for opposing the war, but they were the exceptions).
The movie does a great job of depicting this, and in fact this makes up the bulk of the middle of the movie--Rosa Luxemburg's struggle to get the German Social Democratic Party to oppose the war, and her bitter disappointment when the German socialists cave in and support the war.  (The same thing happened in all the socialist parties in Europe, on both sides of the war.)
The movie does a good job of showing Rosa Luxemburg's speeches opposing the war.  And then showing the absurdity of how she was the one who ended up in jail.  (It's a strange thing about modern civilization.  Waging war makes you a hero.  Campaigning for peace puts you in a jail cell.)
The movie slows down again when Rosa Luxemburg is in jail, as the drama at this point largely consists of her trying to keep her spirits up while she is in jail, and reading books, and walking in the prison yards.  It arguably goes on a bit too long, and gets a bit too boring, but again, I think this was what Margarethe von Trotta wanted to focus on.

The Spartacist Uprising, when it does come, happens mostly off camera.  Again, I suspect this movie just didn't have the budget to show it.

And then the ending of the movie is shocking.  Rosa Luxemburg is shot in the head and dumped into the canal.  And the movie just abruptly ends.

Ratings:
8 out of 10 Stars.  (I'm willing to forgive a lot because I'm so interested in the history.  Assuming you're of the same mindset, I think 8 out of 10 stars is fair.  If you're not interested in the history, then stay away.  There's nothing in this movie for you.)

Video Review
Video Review HERE and embedded below:



Link of the Day
Noam Chomsky On Anarchism