The Universal clock: the resistance of Peter Watkins

Geoff Bowie’s “The Universal Clock: the Resistance of Peter Watkins” is an excellent introduction to the work of Peter Watkins as well as a fascinating, stirring reflection on matters of audio-visual mass media, politics and contemporary society. A documentary filmmaker himself, Bowie reflects on the art and practice of documentary filmmaking and the question of whether it is possible to use the medium today in a political, impassioned and committed way. These kinds of questions inevitably lead him to Watkins, political filmmaker extraordinaire and self-proclaimed ‘media critic’. The film looks at Watkins on the set of his most recent production, “The Commune (Paris 1871)”, a fictional recreation of the landmark mass uprising in 1871 Paris, put down by the French Army in a bloody massacre that killed thousands. These ‘on the set’ scenes are intercut with intimate interviews with members of the largely non-professional cast who talk eloquently about mass media control, the ‘sleeping majority’ and the question of whether a revolution akin to the Commune uprising is possible today. Bowie then contrasts Watkins’ documentary practice with the kind of ‘product’ bought and sold at MIP TV in Cannes, the largest television market in the world that determines what is produced and distributed worldwide. Bowie swiftly sets up an opposition between the work of Watkins (political and revolutionary) and mainstream documentary (homogenized and customised). The latter is less about revealing reality then concealing it, determining the viewer’s thoughts and feelings then allowing such thoughts and feelings to shape the viewing experience. It is thanks to filmmakers like Watkins who challenge the status quo, and pierce the bubble of complacency and passivity with works of art that are demanding, unconventional, and committed. But because Watkins’ films don’t fit the ‘universal clock’ requisite duration that includes in-built advertising time (47.5 mins for one-hour; 23.5 mins for half-hour), they remain marginalised. “The Universal Clock” closes on the haunting note that though the 6-hour “The Commune” screened on French television, it did so only very late at night so that the majority of French viewers were fast asleep during the climatic bloody massacre. Intermittently in French with English subtitles.