At the beginning of the 70’s, René Viénet, situationist and filmmaker, bought the rights of a Chinese kung fu film and, by adding subtitles and later sound dubbing, transformed it into an hilarious burlesque avant garde comedy. It was the technique of “detournement”, that reformulated and recontextualised works of art for other means. And so, a martial arts film was now containing situationism aphorisms and fights opposing proletarians and bureaucrats.
Can Dialectics Break Bricks? (restored version)
René Viénet
IndieLisboa 2020 • Director's Cut
France, Hong Kong SAR China, Fiction, 1973, 90′
