This movie was great for many reasons. As a person who is interested in Marx and his theories this movie was very interesting. I liked how it honestly portrayed the respective romantic relationship of Marx (with Jenny), and the one of Engels (with an English worker named Mary Burns). Perhaps the movie was too weak on Proudhon but it tells an important part of Marx's life which I have not seen any other movie cover. There should be the young Mao, the young Stalin, and the young Lenin next!
There's much more to say about this film than this short little paragraph. This film is a compelling, moving drama to say the least. Not only does August Diehl do a great job playing Karl Marx but so does Stefan Konarske in playing Friedrich Engels and Olivier Gourmet playing Proudhon. At the same time, Vicky Krieps plays a powerful role as Jenny, Hannah Steele as Mary and all the rest. This film brings up the obvious contradiction of Engels criticizing capitalism while his livelihood is dependent on his father's factories which obviously exploit workers while Marx on the other than is literally poor almost all the time, relying on Engels to survive. This is to an extent brought up in Howard Zinn's 1999 play Marx in Soho which I watched part of some time ago, but this movie hammers home these points even more.
I think with this film as a start, it would even be possible to do a whole series on Marx and Engel's collaboration over the years. If there could be a 195-minute film about John Reed (played by Warren Beatty) and Louise Bryant (as Diane Keaton) called Reds in 1981, making such a series is not beyond question. However, obviously there would be no reason for Hollyweird producers to have a film positively portraying Marx, socialism, or communism, as they get more from their red-baiting, which dates back years and years. There is a reason that this is a foreign film rather than a film coming out of Hollyweird, as is obvious and evident.
With that, I think this film has been adequately reviewed for the time being and its review of a 10 out of 10 is fully justified, meaning this review has come to a close.
There's much more to say about this film than this short little paragraph. This film is a compelling, moving drama to say the least. Not only does August Diehl do a great job playing Karl Marx but so does Stefan Konarske in playing Friedrich Engels and Olivier Gourmet playing Proudhon. At the same time, Vicky Krieps plays a powerful role as Jenny, Hannah Steele as Mary and all the rest. This film brings up the obvious contradiction of Engels criticizing capitalism while his livelihood is dependent on his father's factories which obviously exploit workers while Marx on the other than is literally poor almost all the time, relying on Engels to survive. This is to an extent brought up in Howard Zinn's 1999 play Marx in Soho which I watched part of some time ago, but this movie hammers home these points even more.
I think with this film as a start, it would even be possible to do a whole series on Marx and Engel's collaboration over the years. If there could be a 195-minute film about John Reed (played by Warren Beatty) and Louise Bryant (as Diane Keaton) called Reds in 1981, making such a series is not beyond question. However, obviously there would be no reason for Hollyweird producers to have a film positively portraying Marx, socialism, or communism, as they get more from their red-baiting, which dates back years and years. There is a reason that this is a foreign film rather than a film coming out of Hollyweird, as is obvious and evident.
With that, I think this film has been adequately reviewed for the time being and its review of a 10 out of 10 is fully justified, meaning this review has come to a close.