698. Sans Soleil/Sunless (1983)

Running Time: 100 minutes
Directed By: Chris Marker
Written By: Chris Marker
Main Cast: Florence Delay, Arielle Dombasle, Riyoko Ikeda, Charlotte Kerr, Alexandra Stewart

IMPATIENCE

Hopefully today will be the final day of the sixth season, as I put in double overtime to try and reach my short term goal of 601 movies watched (400 to go). This morning, I rose early and popped in "Sans Soleil", the other Chris Marker film in THE BOOK (the first being "La jetee", which I've already reviewed) and found myself in a constant state of impatience.

Even THE BOOK notes that to summarize "Sans Soleil" would be impossible, so I won't even try. I'll just tell you that the film consists of many different images and scenes, shot mainly in Tokyo (although Iceland, San Francisco and Africa were also used as filming locations), that are set to narration, using fake letters, supposedly written to her by the cameraman. Key scenes and segments include Marker's attempt to try and locate & visit all of the key locations in Hitchcock's "Vertigo", a hunter shooting a giraffe (shown in explicit detail) and an interesting girl in a marketplace in Guinea-Bissau - shy and mysterious. "Sans Soleil" is an experimental film, which tries to evoke thought and implements original ideas and uses, sometimes, poetic, nonsensical dialogue to overlap it's images.

I just couldn't wait for this movie to be over and I continue to be baffled by the appeal of the experimental film. I'm not advocating against filmmaker's experimenting with film. I feel that any man who feels the urge to pick up a camera and shoot should do so, in hopes that they might capture something wonderful. However, my befuddlement is caused by the praise that these experimental pieces of cinema are showered with. I just don't understand it and as I watched "Sans Soleil", I grew more impatient, waiting for the end of the film, wanting it desperately to be over. The only time I actually got lost in the film was when the filmmaker was shooting the marketplace in Guinea-Bissau - hundreds of people reacting to a moving, shooting camera; either turning away or looking straight at it. The girl who tries desperately to avoid looking and then, in an instant, gives a glance that lasts a twenty-fourth of a second, was mesmerizing...but only for twenty-fourth of a second. Other than that short sequence, I found my mind wandering, barely able to pay attention to the narrator.

I've bashed experimental films so much in the past, that there's no use continuing to do so. You all know my feelings and since I'm a positive person, I still await the day when someone, experimenting with film, captures my attention and my mind. For now, I'll just leave "Sans Soleil" alone.

RATING: 1/10  I'm a glass half full kind of guy, so how about this thought: This is only the third '1' I've given all season and I've given four '10' ratings. So, perhaps, my earlier comment of this being the worst season ever was a little hasty.

MOVIES WATCHED: 597
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 404

December 1, 2012  12:06pm

370. La jetee/The Pier (1961)

Running Time: 28 minutes
Directed By: Chris Marker
Written By: Chris Marker
Main Cast: Jean Negroni, Helene Chatelain, Davos Hanich, Jacques Ledoux

SHORT AND SWEET

This movie has been floundering on my Netflix streaming queue for a good while now, so I figured I'd go ahead and give twenty-eight minutes and get it watched. It wasn't really that bad, but then again, it was a short film and there really wasn't a lot of time for error.

If you've ever seen the film "12 Monkeys" then you already know the premise of "La jetee". "La jetee" is told entirely by using still photographs and is about a post-apocalyptic world, following World War III. In the future, some scientists want to gather some human guinea pigs together to send into the future, citing that they need to "call past and future to the rescue the present". After some trouble finding humans who can withstand the shock of time travel they call forth a prisoner, based on the fact that he is obsessed with a childhood memory about a woman he saw and a murder he saw. He goes into the past and finds the woman, spending some time with her and forming a relationship with her. After being sent to the past, he is then sent to the future, where he encounters a group of people, who provide him with the power to regenerate his own, present society. After returning to present day, he learns that he is to be executed, but is then contacted by the future people, who offer to help him. He requests to be transfered to the past permanently, so that he can live with the girl in pre-war times. They oblige him and he is sent to the past where he plans to meet the girl on the same pier where he witnessed a murder as a small boy. When running to meet the girl on the pier, he is shot and realizes that the murder he witnessed as a child was his own.

I guess I just have a problem regarding short films as anything other than "good" or "not good". I have a harder time handing them the status of masterpiece. It just seems so ridiculous to me to deem a movie that is less than half an hour a masterpiece. Sure, "La jetee" is a good little movie and the photography is very nice. The ending is probably the most harrowing part of the film and the narrator's voice (dubbed in English in my version) was a powerful, good storytelling voice. Actually I've always been a big fan of "12 Monkeys" and seeing it first, I'd have to say I prefer it much more than this one. I'll have to say that Terry Gilliam did a pretty good job stretching twenty-eight minutes of story into two hours and the final product was really good, though much more complex than this. This was a simple, little sci-fi tale that served its purpose and got it's story across, so I'd say it's a success, but still...it's simply too short to really amount to anything more than a mild recommendation.

RATING: 5.5/10 That's a rating that rates "La jetee" on a short film scale and the "1001" scale. Good for a short film, but not significant enough to make it into this book.

MOVIES WATCHED: 198
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 803

November 21, 2010 10:00pm