"charles III do you know the guillotine?"

The Universal Clock - The Resistance of Peter Watkins, Geoff Bowie, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

graffiti left in paris during thursday's march read: 

"charles III do you know the guillotine?"

once again hail the commune!

a french response (to the news charles III woud not be making a state visit to paris just a this very moment).  'ah non, les gars, si vous le voulez raccourci, va falloir le faire vous même, on a les mains pleines en ce moment' ('oh no, guys, if you want it shortened, you'll have to do it yourself, we have our hands full at the moment.')

this is why horsemouth loves the french (they have the correct attitude). 

right now (the now when he typed (most of) this, yesterday evening) horsemouth was a bit moody. he was writing his blog post a little early and cooking dinner.- pasta and chick peas.  

after that he settled down to watch peter watkins' la commune.

this horsemouth has been watching in parallel with the events in paris - he considers them their direct continuation. 

to begin with at the start of la commune (1871) two unemployed teachers mention education nouvelle - perhaps this is pestalozzi, perhaps it is an artefact, a 'productive anarchronism' argued back in time and into the text. there were certainly debates over the need to educate street children (and feed them) and the way the state was closing down the state schools and permitting their replacement by religious institutions (where the children were taught according to their station in life - sewing for girls for example). 

'it does not so much resurrect the paris commune as it refuses the death of this historical, revolutionary moment' argues roxanne panchasi in her essay.if the revolution had been televised.

'making a film is a social act, a political act, a human act of work love and communication.' says peter watkins himself.

but this attitude to his work as a director is rare. horsemouth became distracted by watching the universal clock - the resistance of peter watkins by geoff bowie - . geoff goes to a conference where the aim is to sell documentaries round the world - each formatted to a 47 minute hour (to permit the sale of advertising into the gaps).

geoff  interviews some of  the participants (many of them non-professional actors) in wilkins' la commune about how it made them feel and respond to the actual (historical) commune. 

today horsemouth is off to visit howard (maybe a little guitar).