LE JEUNE KARL MARX, Raoul Peck’s second film opening in March, shows the first encounter and subsequent friendship between Marx (August Diehl) and Friedrich Engels (Stefan Konarske) till their collaboration on the Communist Manifesto. The film is dialogue-heavy and is interesting and lively because of it. Marx and Engels scuffle, drink, and sleep around as well, but they mostly spend their time discussing: with Proudhon, with early socialist Weitling, and with each other. It seems like two ideas are especially important to Peck: Marx and Engels’ argument that a social movement requires a theoretical foundation and, secondly, the development of historical materialism, the idea that all history is the history of class struggle. Most of all LE JEUNE KARL MARX asserts that political discussion is a passionate, exciting affair.

Tom Dorow

Translation: Elinor Lewy