In the name of education 1968, Paris. Time for a light revolution. Crowds of infantile students who came to the protest carnival under the approval of even more infantile oracles of public opinion - against the domination of boring adults, but it is unknown what in the name. Curly Che, who died not long ago, and eternally alive Lenin, a titan in a gray cap – they must have mocked a lot from their red Valhalla at such plush revolutionaries who suddenly wrote their fiery-severe names on their loud banners!
And in this most troubled and unserious 1968, one of the leading French film studios makes a film about revolutionaries of the old type, indomitable ascetics, obsessed with a cruel and lofty idea. Those who know what to fight for. And this film is a comedy, a comedy stunning and dizzying, with diamond actors like Bourville and Lonsdal.
School teacher of literature Armand Saint-Just (the surname, of course, is not accidental), perfectly embodied by Bourville, collects (affiliates, as they said in their Bakunin with Nechaev) the classic revolutionary five motley drives, in order to terrorize the capital. A handful of intelligent terrorists spray television antennas on the roofs of houses with a special solution to stop, finally, the terrible signal, monotonously and mercilessly entering the philistine televisions, and from televisions into the philistine brains.
"In the name of French education!" exclaims Saint-Just, idealist, silverless and fanatic. He can no longer watch in the morning lessons youngsters, numb and stupefying after consuming another gum. Zombies, these powerful batteries of centralized stupefaction, must be silenced, the inhabitants – wake up from a heavy drug trip, their children – return from the gum to real life, comprehending its basics under the strict and fair Saint-Just eye of the classical enlightener.
The ways of affiliation of accomplices, affiliation, if you will, are shown very reliably. A colleague of Saint-Just, a sports athlete Mesnar, follows him as for an indestructible authority, an impeccable and charismatic personality (as Stalin once went after Lenin), another colleague, a pretty teacher, can not remember anything - because of unconditional female sympathy. The grandfather-technician who cooked the solution - because he finally feels his need for human and professional, he needs to be in the ranks, and it is too early to write it off. The most hilarious of Saint-Just's assistants, Dr. Lupjoc, is drawn into the confrontation by chance, on the opposite side and relying solely on his own selfish interest, but by chance he perceives a unique ecstasy in the struggle for a just cause, becoming, perhaps, the most fierce, hungry for fame and righteousness neophyte.
A cell of noble resistance, a heroic, small and desperate powerful bunch, ready in a lost war to resist to the end, and therefore winning battle after battle. Sacred enlightenment limitations, cruel naivety of idealists, in what amusing and touching details they are conveyed! The pathos of true uncompromising, genuine rebelliousness permeates this wonderful ribbon.
It is interesting that the main representatives of the zombie system, the TV boss and the police commissioner he has on the errands, in the course of the action admit that in their families to watch television is not accepted.
I repeat, the film was shot just wonderfully, with all possible positions and gags, and shot with unconditional sympathy for the revolutionaries who rebelled against the TV yoke. In none of the modern films, again, in none, can you find such sympathy for the countercultural rebels, and no sympathy at all. Perhaps that is why the film was forgotten, and its name was vulgarized by a vile television program, of those against which the main characters fought.
The beginning of the seventies is a blessed time of European cinema, already freed from conservative bonds, but not yet constrained by conformity and political correctness, a rare and precious moment in its history. This moment, of course, was captured by the filmmakers in its entirety, down to the feather, and fully embodied on film, for, as you know, the reader, the number was not dreamed of at that time.
Speaking of numbers. Sprinkle your life-saving mixture with your comrades today, it should be home-modernized before the Internet is turned off. You can't do with a TV.
10 out of 10