19/01/2009
Marx: the quest, the path, the destination
Alexander Kluge's nine-and-a-half hour long film of Marx's
"Kapital" is not a minute too long says Helmut Merker
What is a *revolutionary*? The writings of Marx and Engels both use the metaphor of revolution as the "locomotive of history". Is, then, the revolutionary a standard bearer of progress, a pace setter, a frontrunner?
None of the above, because in a world ruled by a turbo "devaluation" where only the new has market value, where commodity production spirals out of control, the "train of time" is a deadly trend. Alexander Kluge instead opts for Walter Benjamin's idea of the revolution as mankind "*pulling the emergency brake*". We must hold up the torch of reason to the problems at hand, and the true revolutionary is therefore the one who can unite future and past, merging two times, two societies, the artist who montages stories and history. And so we come to Alexander Kluge <http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/kluge.html> and his art. http://www.signandsight.com/features/1815.html