A challenging film, but one that is really worth your time if you are a cinema lover. Trying to sum up this film would be quite a difficult task. You could call it a political, pop-art, existential exploration of history and art, human consciousness, and reality. The narrator's voice is really haunting, probably the best narration in a film I have ever seen.
Difficult movie... Both boring and interesting: I found some commentaries very intelligent, others both snobish and empty (pretentious).
The narration in French is poorly audible, unfortunately, and too fast. This spoils the good moments, the profound ones, which would deserve clear narration and a slower rythm, to allow correct assimilation.
This film is about cats and owls. people will tell you it's an exploration of ..... Nope, cats and owls. there's some filler between the shots of cats and owls, but you want to focus on the cats, or the owls, up to you.
It's mainly an exploration of memory, how humans remember, and how we rewrite memory much like history rewrites itself. The way I see it, it mixes fiction with documentary, and is more concerned with a sort of subjective reality Chris Marker has built around the events we are shown. I think the "main plot" is quite clear though, but of course there are tons of digressions and small observations which can make it a bit hard to follow at firs, I guess. I recommend you rewatch it! Gets better each time.
I'm a bit disappointed in myself given practically every critical word I've read about this film says how wonderful it is (even two "best film ever" comments below), that both times I've sat down to watch it it has acted as a cinematic sleeping pill. The dialogue is complicated and moves quickly, often in contrast to the imagery that demands thought in itself. Maybe I've not been in the mood when I've watched it but I struggled to take anything meaningful away from it. People write of images that haunt them; I just found the abstraction frustrating and the narration soporific, though I should say I think Marker's "La Jetee" is one of the most ingenious and fascinating short films I've ever seen.
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Comments 1 - 11 of 11
akuma587
A challenging film, but one that is really worth your time if you are a cinema lover. Trying to sum up this film would be quite a difficult task. You could call it a political, pop-art, existential exploration of history and art, human consciousness, and reality. The narrator's voice is really haunting, probably the best narration in a film I have ever seen.Windill
Difficult movie... Both boring and interesting: I found some commentaries very intelligent, others both snobish and empty (pretentious).The narration in French is poorly audible, unfortunately, and too fast. This spoils the good moments, the profound ones, which would deserve clear narration and a slower rythm, to allow correct assimilation.
Bluearctic
This film is about cats and owls. people will tell you it's an exploration of ..... Nope, cats and owls. there's some filler between the shots of cats and owls, but you want to focus on the cats, or the owls, up to you.Uruloki
It's mainly an exploration of memory, how humans remember, and how we rewrite memory much like history rewrites itself. The way I see it, it mixes fiction with documentary, and is more concerned with a sort of subjective reality Chris Marker has built around the events we are shown. I think the "main plot" is quite clear though, but of course there are tons of digressions and small observations which can make it a bit hard to follow at firs, I guess. I recommend you rewatch it! Gets better each time.Best film of all time, by the way.
dombrewer
I'm a bit disappointed in myself given practically every critical word I've read about this film says how wonderful it is (even two "best film ever" comments below), that both times I've sat down to watch it it has acted as a cinematic sleeping pill. The dialogue is complicated and moves quickly, often in contrast to the imagery that demands thought in itself. Maybe I've not been in the mood when I've watched it but I struggled to take anything meaningful away from it. People write of images that haunt them; I just found the abstraction frustrating and the narration soporific, though I should say I think Marker's "La Jetee" is one of the most ingenious and fascinating short films I've ever seen.SpacePauls
So why did that guy shoot that giraffe?wallum313
Largely incoherent and a bit pretentious. I think people confuse being confused by the film, as a proof of it being an intelligent/good film...filmcave
akuma, there are different narrators, which language?Scream1008
This movie is some kind of amazing. Best documentary ever.Public Enemy
This is a mondo film for film snobs. Don't believe me? Watch Mondo Cane, which came out 20 years earlier.Half the dialogue is exactly what one would see in a mondo film but the other half is just something else.
george4mon
That was such a chore to get through...zzzzz