The Peace Demonstration In Fleurville

The People Of The Wind, IV.

In this post, we revisit one of my combox contentions. Over dinner, Eve Davisson tells Philippe Rochefort:

"'I shan't join the demonstrators, whatever some of my friends may say when they learn I've been out with an Imperial officer.'" (p. 488)

In any film adaptation, between Rochefort in space and Rochefort in the restaurant, we should see brief highlights of a demonstration:

a large crowd gathers, comprising smaller groups unfurling banners and raising placards;

they march through Fleurville, flanked by stewards identified by arm bands or coloured jackets;

not military ranks but a crowd flowing like a river;

individuals with megaphones lead chants;

different sections of the march display and chant different slogans like "Peace Now!," "Down with the Empire!," "No to Terra!"; "All Beings are Brothers!," "Friendship with Ythri!";

some peel off to crowd into coffee shops, then re-join the march;

on-lookers include pro-Imperial counter-demonstrators with placards;

police separate opposed factions;

police challenge some slogans as illegal;

there are some arrests;

an equivalent of a TV crew interviews individuals;

marchers ignore a lone preacher on a soapbox;

the gathering and march are filmed with a hand held camera carried between the actors and extras so that the cinema audience gets a sense of what it is like to be surrounded by the demonstration, not just of viewing it from the outside;

the march ends with a rally in a square near Parliament with speakers on a platform;

speakers include well-known politicians and campaign leaders;

some marchers are still arriving during the speeches whereas large numbers are already leaving to rendezvous with their transport back to other parts of Esperance;

some individuals and groups are content to have marched and not to have heard any speeches;

leaflets are distributed;

most leaflets directly address current politics but there will be alternatives like "Find Peace Through Jesus" or "Support (some sectarian leader that no one has ever heard of)";

alternative newspapers are sold or handed out free;

some queue to sign a petition to the Emperor;

money is collected for march expenses and for related causes;

if there are Krishna Consciousness devotees on Esperance, then they hand out free vegetarian curries (atheists do not refuse free food; Muslims might refuse food that has been offered to an idol);

an individual following a banner tries to move forward through the crowd but is held up by a seemingly endless line of people walking at right angles to his proposed path;

people use mobile phones to re-establish contact with groups from which they have been separated or to ask where their transport pick-up point is;

an ambulance has to be summoned to someone who has fainted;

the antigrav alternatives to helicopters hover overhead.

You might guess that I write from experience. A short scene in a film cannot possibly show everything that I have listed in any detail. However, an attempt to flicker very quickly through many such sub-scenes would generate a confusing impression of a large public event and would give some context to Eve's remark to Rochefort.