The Visual Construction of the Emergence of Revolutionary Thought from a Communication Perspective: A Comparative Analysis of Young Marx and The Founding of a Party

Abstract

Film and television serve as vital vehicles for the popularisation and ideological interpretation of Marxism, with differing socio-historical and cultural contexts shaping distinct cinematic narrative paradigms. The French film Young Marx, set against the original context of 19th-century Western European capitalism, depicts the genesis of Marxist theory in its original form and represents a classic interpretation of original Marxism by the Western left; the Chinese mainstream film The Founding of the Party focuses on the context of modern China's struggle for survival and national salvation, recreating the trajectory of the nascent practice of Marxism's localisation---from its theoretical introduction to its revolutionary transformation. This paper takes these two films as comparative texts and, drawing on philosophical methods such as the materialist conception of history, employs literature review, close textual analysis and comparative research to explore the commonalities and differences in the cinematic interpretation of the same theory within distinct Chinese and Western contexts.The study finds that whilst both films share the core theoretical essence and value aspirations of Marxism, differences in economic base, cultural traditions, ideology and creative systems have led to narrative divergences between individual speculative development and collective practical exploration. On this basis, this paper argues for the dialectical unity of Marxism's universal truth and its localised development, revealing the historical inevitability of modern China's adoption of Marxism, and providing a theoretical reference for the dissemination of Marxism through film and the creation of 'red' cinematography in the new era.