In 1953, Alain Resnais, Chris Marker, and Ghislain Cloquet produced Statues Also Die, one of the fiercest and most lucid indictments of white imperialism ever captured on film. Commissioned by the magazine Présence Africaine, it sought to dissect Western attitudes toward African art. The 30-minute short did not begin as an anti-colonial project but became one along the way, informed by the belittling treatment that antiquities from the continent had received across French cultural institutions since their plundering under colonial rule. Why, for a start, was African art routinely confined at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris––an ethnographic museum––while Greek or Assyrian pieces found their place at the Louvre? An arresting montage of statues and their visitors swelled into a much larger critique of the systematic oppression of Black culture and Black bodies, with a third act considering the exploitation of Black athletes and musicians in the States.
- 2/26/2024
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
Stars: Jacques Ledoux, Davos Hanich, Jean Négroni, Hélène Chatelain, Alexandra Stewart | Written and Directed by Chris Marker
La Jetee is Chris Marker’s 1962 mini sci-fi film. It tells the story of the aftermath of World War 3, and the survivors living underground. A scientist (Jacques Ledoux) performs experiments in time travel, so a man (Davos Hanich) can go and fetch food and medical supplies.
The film is almost entirely composed of monochrome still images. It’s a form that requires a narrator (Jean Négroni) to explain everything at every moment, which makes you wonder what the images – many of which are library pictures depicting real-world destruction – really add to the piece. I wonder also if such a film were made today, making use of the devastation in, say, Syria, then it would be seen as tasteless and crass.
Still, it’s an arresting montage. By using still images, Marker circumvents normal...
La Jetee is Chris Marker’s 1962 mini sci-fi film. It tells the story of the aftermath of World War 3, and the survivors living underground. A scientist (Jacques Ledoux) performs experiments in time travel, so a man (Davos Hanich) can go and fetch food and medical supplies.
The film is almost entirely composed of monochrome still images. It’s a form that requires a narrator (Jean Négroni) to explain everything at every moment, which makes you wonder what the images – many of which are library pictures depicting real-world destruction – really add to the piece. I wonder also if such a film were made today, making use of the devastation in, say, Syria, then it would be seen as tasteless and crass.
Still, it’s an arresting montage. By using still images, Marker circumvents normal...
- 12/17/2019
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
Tiff Cinematheque presents a Summer in France: ‘La Jetée’ is picturesque, in every sense of the word
La Jetée
Directed by Chris Maker
Written by Chris Maker
France, 1962
If a picture’s worth a thousand words, Chris Maker’s La Jetée is worthy of a novel. His 28-minute featurette, composed almost entirely of stark black and white photos, tells a haunting, forlorn romance in an arresting tableau of images. Avant garde in almost every way imaginable, La Jetée was an experimental picture that has since become a landmark and blue print for future science fiction films.
The story is set after the nuclear fallout of World War Three, where a man (Davos Hanich) is held prisoner in the decaying, murky underground of post-apocalyptic Paris. Along with other inmates, he is considered a ‘guinea pig’, a subject in a science experiment to go back in time and warn the past of the future.
While others are unable to withstand the trauma of time travel, the man, because of...
Directed by Chris Maker
Written by Chris Maker
France, 1962
If a picture’s worth a thousand words, Chris Maker’s La Jetée is worthy of a novel. His 28-minute featurette, composed almost entirely of stark black and white photos, tells a haunting, forlorn romance in an arresting tableau of images. Avant garde in almost every way imaginable, La Jetée was an experimental picture that has since become a landmark and blue print for future science fiction films.
The story is set after the nuclear fallout of World War Three, where a man (Davos Hanich) is held prisoner in the decaying, murky underground of post-apocalyptic Paris. Along with other inmates, he is considered a ‘guinea pig’, a subject in a science experiment to go back in time and warn the past of the future.
While others are unable to withstand the trauma of time travel, the man, because of...
- 7/24/2012
- by Justin Li
- SoundOnSight
Well we all knew this would happen. Back in February, when Criterion announced their epic digital streaming partnership with Hulu, they also quietly revealed that their streaming options on Netflix would be coming to an end over the course of the next year. While I haven’t been paying close attention to the Criterion Collection films that have been expiring since that announcement was made, I thought it would be helpful to all of you loyal Netflix subscribers to know that in about twelve days, 26 titles will be expiring on the 26th of May, 2011.
I’ve gone and linked to all of the titles below, so you can click on the cover art or the text, and be taken to their corresponding Netflix pages. While this isn’t everything that Criterion has to offer on Netflix, it is a nice chunk of really important films. If you don’t currently have a Netflix subscription,...
I’ve gone and linked to all of the titles below, so you can click on the cover art or the text, and be taken to their corresponding Netflix pages. While this isn’t everything that Criterion has to offer on Netflix, it is a nice chunk of really important films. If you don’t currently have a Netflix subscription,...
- 5/15/2011
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
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