LCP-ASSEMBLÉE NATIONALE – MONDAY DECEMBER 12 AT 8:30 P.M. – DOCUMENTARY
His documentary on Georges Marchais (1920-1997), former Secretary General of the French Communist Party (PCF), Gérard Miller conceived it as a multiple journey. First geographically: from the native Normandy of the future worker leader to his final resting place in Champigny-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne) via Malakoff (Hauts-de-Seine). Then, interior: we follow the itinerary of this son of farmers, apolitical, altar boy, dreaming of becoming a worker, initially suspicious of communism before becoming one of the main world figures. Politics, finally, when, as a young militant, he quickly rose through the ranks of the apparatus, claiming a certain freedom but also being able to show himself “without qualms” when it comes to purging certain internal opponents.
The family of Georges Marchais holds a special place in this story, opening its archives, sharing its memories
All this, Gérard Miller recounts with talent in his film, which will be screened at the headquarters of the Communist Party, in Paris, on Wednesday, December 14. Quite a symbol: just fifty years ago, in December 1972, Georges Marchais acceded to the most important post of the PCF. At the time, it was nothing. The PCF was, along with the Italian Communist Party, the largest in the Western world. He had his hands on the CGT and was the main left-wing party, much stronger and more established than the Socialist Party (PS) which had just been refounded in Epinay (Seine-Saint-Denis), six months earlier, placing at its head François Mitterrand. Things will change radically in less than ten years.
If the period – more than twenty years long – when Georges Marchais led the PCF constitutes the heart of the documentary, his (large) family holds a place of choice in this story, opening their archives, sharing their memories, detailing certain scenes of life. daily. We will remember the story of two of the Marchais girls who explain how happy they were all when, for the first time, in the early 1960s, they had a bathroom in their accommodation.
Shadow areas
Gérard Miller also interviews many figures of the party, the former leaders Robert Hue, Marie-Georges Buffet, Pierre Laurent or even the current national secretary, Fabien Roussel. All tell « Georges » as he was, with a fundamentally endearing side but also certain gray areas or passages of his life that were not necessarily glorious.
This is also one of the strengths of this documentary: not to be hagiographic. Without dwelling on it, he tells how the young Marchais was requisitioned to go to work in Germany in 1942 and how it was used against him, many years later, by his adversaries within and outside the PCF. His writings are also mentioned in Humanityin May 1968, against the “leftists” and their leader, Daniel Cohn-Bendit.
Finally, Gérard Miller explains how, from the end of the 1970s, in reaction to the first signs of his party’s decline, Marchais renounced everything he had done previously, in particular distancing himself from the USSR on the question democratic, to get closer to the Soviet “big brother”, going so far as to judge its record “generally positive” and justify the invasion of Afghanistan. In the end, a fascinating and nuanced portrait of a political leader much more complex than it seems.
Georges Marchais, the man who had chosen his side, documentary by Gérard Miller (Fr., 2022, 52 min). Broadcast as part of the “DébatDoc” program on LCP-National Assembly.