Il Cinema Ritrovato on Tour • Presented by Archives on Screen

Coup pour coup (Blow for Blow)

Introduction by Sarah Welles

Saturday, February 15 • 7:00pm • Tickets: $12 General (+ $2 online fee), $8 Members (no fee), $8 Students (door)

ABOUT THE FILM

A feminist vision and a manual for labor politics, the women in Blow for Blow take control of their working conditions and push back against their boss’s inaction. Set in a clothing factory, this documentary includes professional actors and amateur performers. When the mostly female workforce get fed up, they occupy the factory and take their male boss hostage.

Il Cinema Ritrovato Program Notes

After Sept jours ailleurs and Camarades, two dramas infused with the protest spirit of the era (filmed in 1967 and 1969 respectively), Marin Karmitz, then a proletarian leftwing activist, developed a strategy for his third feature film that would overturn the rules of cinematographic creation. The scenario, which recounts a wildcat strike in a textile factory, is based on the testimonies of dozens of female workers. On the set, the actresses originally cast were quickly replaced by real workers. Using the term “intervention cinema” is a two-way street: the artist gets involved in the political field, while the workers get involved in making the film by giving their opinion on a scene or improvising the dialogue. This original method proves highly effective on the screen, generating a formidable impression of vitality. Coup pour coup presents the alienating daily life of the factory, with the racket of the machines, the intimidation of the supervisors and the infernal pace. The rebellion that ensues involves the occupation of the factory and the kidnapping of the boss. The camera is placed at the level of the women who set about their work, recording their actions and debates, capturing their anger as well as their joy.

The bitter nature of the conflict does not preclude moments of jubilation for these female fighters on the road to emancipation, who sing in chorus about being fed up with their condition (“When we get home / The husband replaces the boss”). On its release in 1972, the film, representing a rallying cry against all forms of power (including unions), struggled to obtain mainstream distribution. “It was also through this experience that I gained an insight into the importance of running movie theatres,” says Karmitz in the book Comédies (Fayard, 2016). In 1974, he would open his first cinema in Paris, the 14-Juillet Bastille, renamed mk2 Bastille in 1998. –Julien Dokhan, “Troiscouleurs,” no. 159, March-April 2018

RESTORATION NOTES:

Blow for Blow: Copy from Mk2 Films. Restored in 2018 by Mk2 at Éclair Classics laboratory from the original negative. Funding provided by CNC – Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée. Restoration supervised by Marin Karmitz.