Can dialectics break bricks?

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La dialectique peut-elle casser des briques?
Directed by	René Viénet
Release date(s)	1973
Country	France
Language	French
IMDb profile

La Dialectique Peut-Elle Casser Des Briques?, in English, "Can Dialectics Break Bricks?", is a 1973 situationist film produced by the French director René Viénet which explores the resolution of conflict through dialogue as opposed to violence.

The film uses a much older Kung-Fu film ("The Crush" from Doo Kwang Gee) for its visuals which has been dubbed over by the filmmakers in an attempt at detournement. The concept and motivation of this film was to adapt a bourgeois film into a radical critique of cultural hegemony and thus into tools of subversive revolutionaries ideals.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Narrative is based upon a conflict between the proletarian and bureaucrats within state capitalism. The proletarians enlist their dialectics and radical subjectivity to fight their oppressors whilst the bureaucrats defend themselves using a combination of bribery and violence. The film is noted for its humorous approach to this serious subject matter.

The film also contains many references to revolutionaries who thought and fought for the realisation of a post-capitalist world, including Marx, Bakunin, and Wilhelm Reich. Also Subplots dealing with issues of gender equality, alienation, trade unionism, May 1968, and the Situationist themselves are riddled throughout the film.

The conclusions reached by the filmmakers are that those who would use violence against dialogue will always prevail as they are incapable of following the rational argument.