美国国家公共电台 NPR 'The Young Karl Marx' Looks Inside The Mind Of A Revolutionary

'The Young Karl Marx' Looks Inside The Mind Of A Revolutionary

SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:

We're now going to discuss a movie about a 19th century revolutionary who'd probably have plenty to say about current times. "The Young Karl Marx" is a new biopic from filmmaker Raoul Peck. It tells the story of a Marx who has yet to enter the history books. It's 1844. He's 26, poor, writing for a left-wing newspaper, already questioning the common thought of the time. Marx finds his intellectual soulmate in Friedrich Engels, a rebellious¹ rich kid, writing about the poor conditions of the working class in England. Together, they start a movement that provokes a social revolution. Raoul Peck has tackled social issues before in documentaries about the slain² Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and, most recently, the African-American writer James Baldwin in the Oscar-nominated feature "I Am Not Your Negro." Raoul Peck joins us now from our studios in New York. Thank you for speaking with us.

RAOUL PECK: Well, thank you for inviting³ me.

MCCAMMON: As we mentioned, your last film, "I Am Not Your Negro," was a documentary about the influential⁴ writer and thinker James Baldwin. But I can imagine that some viewers might still be surprised that for your next film, you decided⁵ to make what's kind of a bromance movie about Marx and Engels. Why did you want to tell this story?

PECK: Well, you know, both projects came up around the same time and somehow both projects was a sort of response to the world I feel around me. And it's what I call the rise of ignorance, of confusion, where experts or scientists who have worked their whole life on any subject - climate change or new energy - can be shut down by somebody's opinion without having to demonstrate anything.

MCCAMMON: I want to play a short clip from your new film, "The Young Karl Marx." And in this one, Engels has introduced Marx to a factory owner, and Marx does not seem to appreciate the business' working conditions.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE YOUNG KARL MARX")

AUGUST DIEHL: (As Karl Marx) If labor⁶ costs more, there'd be no more profits, therefore no more economy, therefore no more society. And where would a society without exploitation lead people like you? You would have to work, too. Wouldn't that be horrible?

MCCAMMON: Naturally for a film about Marx, it's largely driven by a lot of talk, a lot of thinking. That can be hard to make exciting on screen.

PECK: Yes.

MCCAMMON: How did you tackle that?

PECK: What we did is use their correspondence, those incredible letters that they wrote to each other, where they were totally sincere not only in their politics, in their work as economists⁷, as journalists. But also, they talk about life. They talk about their relationship. They talk about their anger. So using those correspondence make everything more closer to us. And we understand what was fueling the life and the ambition and the goals of those young people in the Europe of 19th century.

MCCAMMON: What were you trying to draw out in this film?

PECK: Well, it's basically to understand how our society functioned, a society that is embedded⁸ in capitalism⁹. And what Marx did is to analyze¹⁰ this society. And today, his analyses are even more urgent and necessary than before. You can see, like, even the young kids from Florida right now who are protesting and asking for more gun control, they have understood the connection between money, between capital, between profit and that there are people who are capable of choosing the worst decision if it will preserve their profit. So that is something that Marx had written about - that how sometimes even the state put itself at the service of the industry - or the profit-making industry.

MCCAMMON: Are you opposed to capitalism?

PECK: It's not a matter of am I opposed or not. It's a matter of this is the system we are in and we can see what kind of inequality it's generated. So the question is not am I for or not. It's how do we change that?

MCCAMMON: But hasn't this been tried before many times? I mean, Marx's ideas pervaded¹¹, for instance, the Soviet¹² Union. We saw how well that worked out.

PECK: Well, that's exactly - it did not influence the Soviet Union. Marx and Engels would have probably been the first one to be shot. And that's why, you know, if you see "The Young Karl Marx," you know, they were Democrats¹³. They were freethinker. And this incredible monster that was fabricated after the Russian Revolution has nothing to do with the ideas.

MCCAMMON: At the end as the credits roll, you show footage from more contemporary times. We see shots of John F. Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Wall Street. Why did you decide to do that?

PECK: Because I made a film for now. I didn't make a film about the past. My intention with this film was to reconnect with what is happening today and to help an audience to connect the dot.

MCCAMMON: "The Young Karl Marx" is now playing in limited release. I've been speaking with Raoul Peck, the director from New York. Thanks so much for speaking with us.

PECK: Thank you for inviting me.

1 rebellious   

adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的

参考例句：

• They will be in danger if they are rebellious.如果他们造反，他们就要发生危险。
• Her reply was mild enough,but her thoughts were rebellious.她的回答虽然很温和，但她的心里十分反感。

2 slain   

杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词)

参考例句：

• The soldiers slain in the battle were burried that night. 在那天夜晚埋葬了在战斗中牺牲了的战士。
• His boy was dead, slain by the hand of the false Amulius. 他的儿子被奸诈的阿缪利乌斯杀死了。

3 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

4 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

7 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

9 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。

10 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

11 pervaded   

v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A retrospective influence pervaded the whole performance. 怀旧的影响弥漫了整个演出。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The air is pervaded by a smell [smoking]. 空气中弥散着一种气味[烟味]。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

12 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

13 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》