But it does display the subjective dimension of events, and this makes it a barometer of the revolutionary experience. Unlike when we write history, cinema’s aim is not precision.

The book thus explores how this sensibility figures in cinema, by way of the works of Chris Marker, Gillo Pontecorvo, and Ken Loach. Left-wing melancholia better expresses itself in the creations of the revolutionary imaginary than in theoretical controversies. According to Enzo Traverso, its art resides in what Walter Benjamin called the organisation of pessimism: namely, coming to terms with failure without capitulating to the enemy, in the knowledge that a new beginning will adopt unprecedented forms. Hence the development, from those years onward, of a melancholic Marxism of which Daniel BensaÃ¯d was one of the most eminent representatives. Unlike the glorious defeats of the past â€” 1848, 1871, 1919 â€” the defeat of 1989 (the fall of the Berlin Wall, followed by the restoration of capitalism) was a gloomy defeat that generated disillusionment. It is better to recognise, as Luxemburg herself did in 1915, that the future remains uncertain: either 'socialism or barbarism.' In her last article in January 1919, Rosa Luxemburg wrote 'The road to socialism is paved with defeats… from which we draw historical experience, understanding, power and idealism.' The same spirit animated Che Guevara when he told his murderers in October 1967: 'we have lost, but the revolution is immortal.' However, according to Traverso this dialectic of defeat could lead to a kind of secular theodicy, with a near-religious faith in the final victory.

Yet this does not lead to acceptance of the established order â€” quite the opposite. The history of socialism over the last two centuries has been a constellation of tragic and often bloody defeats.

Left-Wing Melancholia by Enzo Traverso