Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of an interview with an American pilot in Vietnam from Chris Marker's A Grin Without A Cat.
DVD Review
A Grin Without A Cat, directed by Chris Marker, Icarus Films, 1977
The old saying- a picture is worth a thousand words- is an apt, more than apt, expression in reviewing this hotchpotch of a film documentary. Why hotchpotch? Well, this two part (on one disc), multi-lingual (in choice of languages to listen in and in the languages spoken in the various segments), three hour documentary exposition originally produced in 1977, of many of the great events of the middle third of the 20th century comes rapid-fire at you in a montage effect. For those who merely want a flavor of those political times (roughly 1960 to 1980) there is enough here to act as a primer, and to whet your appetite for more research of the times. For the political aficionado familiar with the period one has to dig a little to get a sense of the basically social democratic world view that informs the viewpoint behind the production by the filmmaker, Chris Markers. Either way it is an interesting way to spent three hours, although for non-political “junkies” perhaps viewing one segment at a time is the better course.
Some of the highlights here are much footage from the anti-Vietnam war struggle as it began to take center stage in the mid-1960s, especially in Europe; plenty of footage of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara (including around his 1967 death in Bolivia) and the meaning of the Cuban revolution and rural guerrilla warfare (and as a by-product, urban guerrilla warfare) for world revolutionary strategy; the then historic May Days actions in Paris in 1968 by both students and workers (together and in opposition to each other depending on the stage of the struggle); the seminal anti-Stalinist events in Prague in 1968; Allende’s Popular Front Chile in the early 1970s; and, strewn throughout reflections of the 1960s events from about a decade later perspective by various participants and commentators. Very little material here on the anti-imperialist struggle in America, but the rest more than makes up for it. Kudos on this one.
DVD Review
A Grin Without A Cat, directed by Chris Marker, Icarus Films, 1977
The old saying- a picture is worth a thousand words- is an apt, more than apt, expression in reviewing this hotchpotch of a film documentary. Why hotchpotch? Well, this two part (on one disc), multi-lingual (in choice of languages to listen in and in the languages spoken in the various segments), three hour documentary exposition originally produced in 1977, of many of the great events of the middle third of the 20th century comes rapid-fire at you in a montage effect. For those who merely want a flavor of those political times (roughly 1960 to 1980) there is enough here to act as a primer, and to whet your appetite for more research of the times. For the political aficionado familiar with the period one has to dig a little to get a sense of the basically social democratic world view that informs the viewpoint behind the production by the filmmaker, Chris Markers. Either way it is an interesting way to spent three hours, although for non-political “junkies” perhaps viewing one segment at a time is the better course.
Some of the highlights here are much footage from the anti-Vietnam war struggle as it began to take center stage in the mid-1960s, especially in Europe; plenty of footage of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara (including around his 1967 death in Bolivia) and the meaning of the Cuban revolution and rural guerrilla warfare (and as a by-product, urban guerrilla warfare) for world revolutionary strategy; the then historic May Days actions in Paris in 1968 by both students and workers (together and in opposition to each other depending on the stage of the struggle); the seminal anti-Stalinist events in Prague in 1968; Allende’s Popular Front Chile in the early 1970s; and, strewn throughout reflections of the 1960s events from about a decade later perspective by various participants and commentators. Very little material here on the anti-imperialist struggle in America, but the rest more than makes up for it. Kudos on this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment