Antonio
Negri, A Revolt that Never Ends
Alexandra Weltz and
Andreas Pichler, Directors
First Run/Icarus Films, New York, 2004
VHS video cassette, 52 mins., c/b&w
Sales (Video-DVD), $390; rental (Video),
$100
Distributors website: http://www.frif.com.
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Belgium
stefaan.vanryssen@hogent.be
Antonio Negri was put on trial and convicted
to a life sentence by the Italian State
for his alleged ideological leadership
of the Red Brigades. After 10 years of
imprisonment, he went into exile to Paris
where he taught, continued his research,
and contributed to philosophical debates
with authors such as Deleuze and Guattari.
After 15 years he voluntarily returned
to his home country. Now an elderly man,
he was arrested at his arrival and went
to jail for another eight years. Even
now, while he is under house arrest, he
continues to work and write. With Michael
Hardt, Negri published Empire,
the Bible of the anti-globalization
movement and its sequel, Multitude:
War and Democracy in the Age of Empire.
The film follows Negri from his youth
in a labour class family through his radicalization
and involvement in the radical left-wing
movements of the Sixties and Seventies
and his imprisonment and exile up to his
present activities. It features recent
interviews with Negri himself and some
earlier archival footage of protest demonstrations,
strikes, and public speaking appearances,
as well as interviews with Michael Hardt
and some of Negris Italian and French
colleagues.
The influence of Negri on the radical
left in Italy and abroad cannot be underestimated,
and he is now eagerly taking his place
as a guru of the anti-globalization movement,
but this does not justify the one-dimensional
image that is offered by this documentary.
Surely, the Devil (as he was
once called by Libération,
the French independent newspaper) would
have been portrayed better in a dialectical
context of debate and criticism. It is
my guess that he would have appreciated
that much more than this eulogical surrogate
of a portrait. Unless, of course, the
master has come to understand the power
of mass media and has fallen victim to
its siren song. A renewed reading of his
compatriot and namesake Gramsci might,
then, be advisable.