Tropic Sprockets Virtual Cinema Series / Capital in the Twenty First Century

By Ian Brockway

From director Justin Pemberton (Chasing Great) “Capital” is the visual version of Thomas Piketty’s book “Capital in the Twenty First Century.” The film is brisk and accessible, chock full of clips from classic cinema and newsreels that highlight the main points of the illuminating book.

Piketty is a French economist whose main thesis is that a very few people comprise all of the world’s economic power. This is known as the concentration of wealth. It is a well-established fact that the middle class is shrinking in its economic standing. According to Piketty the world is reverting to the realm of the 18th Century when you had lords of the manor in Draconian control of ultra estates, when everyone either worked for or was envious of the prince. Such conditions, Piketty argues, decimate any hope of economic life for the middle class, making the poor enraged and depressed. War or revolution becomes highly probable.

At that point, the economist emphasizes, Capitalism becomes untenable. As it stands now, 1% of the population controls nearly half of the world’s wealth.

One might think that being wealthy leads to altruism and empathy. Not so, according to the film. Professor Paul Piff, conducted an experiment using a Monopoly board game. By a flip of the coin, he gave some players multiple throws of dice and they became rich.

Invariably, the rich players started to gloat and became selfish. Humility was forgotten.

Though history suggests grim times ahead, the film is peppered with terrific clips from cinema history. There is even a clip from The Simpsons, showing Homer getting foreclosed on.

The film also has wondrous visuals. Huge skyscrapers are abstracted blending into gold color-field images of currency and wanton flappers. The film also has mini monologues from the experts Rana Faroohar and Ian Bremmer, among others, not to mention Piketty as well, who says he can see a more inclusive future for capitalism but only if we make the right choices, specifically against nationalism and fear of people different from ourselves.

It is thrilling to see women and soldiers at the assembly line crafting equipment. Once in the 1940’s, engaged in war, we all pulled together as one. Let us hope we will do so again.

“Capital in the Twenty First Century” is included in the Tropic’s Virtual Cinematheque Series. For tickets to stream the film, go to https://www.tropiccinema.com/event/capital-in-the-21st-century/

Write Ian at [email protected]

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