The Films of Peter Watkins, with J. Hoberman

On October 30 of last year, we lost one of cinema’s most daring auteurs: the British director Peter Watkins. Starting out in television in the 1960s, Watkins developed an utterly unique and militantly political mode of filmmaking. In works like Culloden (1964), The War Game (1966), Punishment Park (1971), and his magnum opus, La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000), he cast nonprofessional actors in enactments of political events from the past, present, or a dystopian future, which he then shot in the style of live news reporting on TV. The results are thrilling films that startle with their naturalism and urgency, and provoke thorny questions about authoritarianism—not just of the state, but also of the media. 

To commemorate this great filmmaker’s legacy, Film Comment editor Devika Girish invited critic J. Hoberman, who has not only admired and written about Watkins’s work, but also took a class with the man himself back in the 1970s. They talk about the trajectory of Watkins’s life and work, what makes his films feel so singular even today, and the contemporary directors that carry forward his legacy.