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Category Archives: Drama

Reds (1981)

09 Jan

194m; U.S.

Director: Warren Beatty

Cast: Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Edward Hermann, Jerzy Kosinski, Maureen Stapelton, Gene Hackman

Synopsis: Reds is the epic biography of early 20th century U.S. communist author and activist Jack Reed and his stormy off-again, on-again love affair with free-thinker Louise Bryant.  The film covers some of Reed’s time in the United States (including relationships with the IWW and the Socialist Party) and their time together in Russia during the Bolshevik revolution which led Reed to write the book Ten Days that Shook the World.  The film also covers attempts to build a communist party in the U.S., the post-World War I “Red Scare” and the early years of the U.S.S.R.  Maureen Stapelton won an Oscar for her portrayal of Emma Goldman and Beatty won for Best Director.  Interspersed throughout the film are interviews with many of the people who knew Reed and Bryant.  Long but highly recommended.

Click here to read Jon Garlock’s introduction to Reds at the Rochester (NY) Labor Film Series.

Trailer

The Russian Revolution Montage

John Reed’s Speech on Freedom and Revolution

 
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Posted by on January 9, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Arts/Culture, Biography, Class, Communism/Socialism, Drama, Labor History, Organizing, Politics, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, War, Women, Working Class

 

Silkwood (1983)

08 Jan

131m; U.S.

Director: Mike Nichols

Cast: Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell and Cher

Synopsis: Biographical film about Karen Silkwood, a chemical technician at a Kerr-McGee nuclear power plant in Oklahoma.  Silkwood became increasingly concerned about all manner of safety and health violations at the plant and worked with her union, the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers to try to address them.  This led to escalating pressure from the company and eventually Silkwood’s death in a suspicious car accident.

 

 

Trailer

 
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Posted by on January 8, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Drama, Labor History, Safety & Health, Whistleblowers, Women

 

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The Soul’s Haven (Il posto dell’anima) [2003]

08 Jan

106m; Italy

Director: Riccardo Milani

Cast: Silvio Orlando, Michele Placido and Claudio Santamaria

Synopsis (IMDB): Three workers of a tire factory, in southern Italy, lead the struggle against the American company owner of the factory who wants to close the Italian branch in which they work.

 

 
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Posted by on January 8, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Comedy, Drama, Organizing, Outsourcing, Working Class

 

Strike (Stachka) [1925]

08 Jan

82m; U.S.S.R.

Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein

Cast: Grigori Aleksandrov, Maksim Shtraukh and Mikhail Gomorov

Synopsis: In Russia’s factory region during Czarist rule, there’s restlessness and strike planning among workers; management brings in spies and external agents. When a worker hangs himself after being falsely accused of thievery, the workers strike. At first, there’s excitement in workers’ households and in public places as they develop their demands communally. Then, as the strike drags on and management rejects demands, hunger mounts, as does domestic and civic distress. Provocateurs recruited from the lumpen and in league with the police and the fire department bring problems to the workers; the spies do their dirty work; and, the military arrives to liquidate strikers.

Trailer

 
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Posted by on January 8, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Communism/Socialism, Drama, Netflix Watch Instantly, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

Time Out (2001)

07 Jan

134m; France

Director: Laurent Cantet

Cast: Aurélien Recoing, Karin Viard and Serge Livrozet

Synopsis (IMDB): Recently fired from his job, but unable to confess the truth to his close-knit family, Vincent spends his days driving around the countryside, talking into his cell phone and staring into space. Vincent fabricates a new job for himself so his family and friends will not know that he is out of work. At one point, he even sneaks into an office building. As Vincent roams the building’s sterile halls, peeking into meeting rooms where men are busy at work, we see a man who yearns not just for a new job, but also for a place in the world. While this pantomime of work initially registers as sad and even a little pathetic, it slowly and unnervingly becomes terrifying.

Trailer

 
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Posted by on January 7, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Drama, Unemployment-Wages, Working Class

 

The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)

04 Jan

127m; U.K.

Director: Ken Loach

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Padraic Delaney and Liam Cunningham

Synopsis (IMDB): Ireland, 1920. Damien and Teddy are brothers. But while the latter is already the leader of a guerrilla squad fighting for the independence of his motherland, Damien, a medical graduate of University College, would rather further his training at the London hospital where he has found a place. However, shortly before his departure, he happens to witness atrocities committed by the ferocious Black and Tans and finally decides to join the resistance group led by Teddy. The two brothers fight side by side until a truce is signed. But peace is short-lived and when one faction of the freedom-fighters accepts a treaty with the British that is regarded as unfair by the other faction, a civil war ensues, pitting Irishmen against Irishmen, brothers against brothers, Teddy against Damien.

Trailer

 
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Posted by on January 4, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Communism/Socialism, Drama, Labor History, War, Working Class

 

Work Hard, Play Hard (Violence des échanges en milieu tempéré) [2006]

04 Jan

99m; France

Director: Jean-Marc Moutout

Cast: Jérémie Renier, Laurent Lucas and Cylia Malki

Synopsis (IMDB): Philippe Seigner, a charming business school graduate from the French Pyrenees, starts his career in business consulting at the posh Paris seat of McGregor. His first serious task is a delicate one, an audit at the Janson food cans factory in the provinces, which is about to be taken over. As he soon realizes, this will mean sacking about 80 employees, as his boss Hugo Paradis knew from the start. However, his Paris girl friend reproaches him collaborating with ruthless capitalism, as if any of the downsizing could be stopped or mitigated by him bowing out. Nevertheless, as he gets to knew the threatened staff better he considers risking his career when his boss orders him to chose who should go. Meanwhile the factory staff starts realizing what’s about to happening

Contact: Antoine Sebire frenchcinemawashington@yahoo.com Audiovisual Affairs Embassy of France – La Maison Française 4101 Reservoir Road, NW Washington DC, 20007 Ph: 202.944.6287 Fax: 202.944.6043 http://www.la-maison-francaise.org

 
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Posted by on January 4, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Big Business/Corporations, Drama, Manufacturing, Unemployment-Wages

 

The Axe (Le Couperet) [2005]

01 Jan

122m; France

Director: Costa-Gavras

Cast: José Garcia, Karin Viard and Geordy Monfils

Synopsis (IMDB): Bruno Davert, a chemist working for a paper company, is fired. After three years he’s still unemployed, too much competition for the few job position he could fit in his sector. He sent tons of resumes, he attended many qualifying courses, he tried everything but there is nothing to do: no job for him in the industry. The only healthy company in the sector is “Arcadia”, but joining it is just an impossible dream. At this point Bruno is desperate. What he could do: to kill all the competitors? Could he?

 
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Posted by on January 1, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Big Business/Corporations, Comedy, Drama, White Collar

 

24 City (Er shi si cheng ji) (2008)

29 Oct

112m; China
Director: Jia Zhangke
Stars: Jianbin Chen, Joan Chen and Liping Lü

Follows three generations of characters in Chengdu (in the 1950s, the 1970s and the present day) as a state-owned factory gives way to a modern apartment complex.
Cinema Guild, Ryan Krivoshey: rkrivoshey@cinemaguild.com

“Change and a city in China. In Chengdu, factory 420 is being pulled down to make way for multi-story buildings with luxury flats. Scenes of factory operations, of the workforce, and of buildings stripped bare and then razed, are inter-cut with workers who were born in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s telling their stories – about the factory, which manufactured military aircraft, and about their work and their lives. A middle-aged man visits his mentor, now elderly; a woman talks of being a 19-year-old beauty there and ending up alone. The film concludes with two young people talking, each the child of workers, each relaying a story of one visit to a factory. Times change.” IMDB; written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>

 
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Posted by on October 29, 2011 in Drama, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Working Class

 

1900 (Novecento) (1977)

25 Oct

245m; Italy
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Starring: Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu and Dominique Sanda

Set in Italy, the film follows the lives and interactions of two boys/men, one born a bastard of peasant stock (Depardieu), the other born to a land owner (de Niro). The drama spans from 1900 to about 1945, and focuses mainly on the rise of Fascism and the peasants’ eventual reaction by supporting Communism, and how these events shape the destinies of the two main characters.

 
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Posted by on October 25, 2011 in Drama, Working Class

 
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