Many years ago, but at a time when I ought to have been a bit less ignorant, I attended a lot of films at the inaugural Dublin Film Festival, back when it was held at the Screen Cinema, just across the road from Trinity College where I was a student. I saw Vincent Ward's extraordinary paean to the New Zealand landscape, Vigil. I embarrassed myself and my mother by insisting we see Rainer Werner Fassbender's last film, Querelle, little realising that it was an adaptation from Jean Genet's play and a sweaty and theatrical celebration of sex between men. And I saw Margaretha von Trotta's Rosa Luxemburg, starring the great Barbara Sukowa. The same team more recently made another film about another great female philosopher, Hannah Arendt. I knew nothing about Luxemburg at this time, or about the way that German society had hung in the balance between left and right in the wake of the First World War. But it's a compelling film about an extraordinarily charismatic and courageous woman, and it's stayed with me ever since.
Verso has published two books, in particular, to mark Luxemburg's centenary: a short account of her death, with Karl Liebknecht, at the hands of the Freikorps in 1919; and JP Nettl's enormous but highly regarded biography. I got my hot little hands on a copy of the biography a few weeks ago, and maybe I'll get my act together in the summer and actually read it. But for now, I must depend on lesser and shorter accounts of Rosa, and her life, and her dreams. Here is some of what I've been reading:
Verso has published two books, in particular, to mark Luxemburg's centenary: a short account of her death, with Karl Liebknecht, at the hands of the Freikorps in 1919; and JP Nettl's enormous but highly regarded biography. I got my hot little hands on a copy of the biography a few weeks ago, and maybe I'll get my act together in the summer and actually read it. But for now, I must depend on lesser and shorter accounts of Rosa, and her life, and her dreams. Here is some of what I've been reading:
No comments:
Post a Comment