The Universal Clock: The Resistance of Peter Watkins

A fascinating and illuminating overview of Watkins’ radical theories and uncompromising approach to cinema.

  • Director

    Geoff Bowie

  • Canada 2001. 76min

  • Digital

Made during the production of La Commune, Geoff Bowie’s documentary explores Watkins’ career-long opposition to what he termed the ‘Monoform’ – the standardised, numbing language of mainstream film and television. Combining behind-the-scenes footage with interviews and extracts from Watkins’ work, the film provides a valuable introduction to his political and aesthetic ideas, and to the collaborative methods behind his filmmaking.

James Bell