Depending on your mood and your familiarity with international politics from 30 to 40 years ago, A Grin Without a Cat can be either talky and esoteric or haunting and prophetic.
A Grin Without A Cat (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 21
Fresh: 19
Rotten:2
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Theatrical Release:May 1, 2002 Limited
Synopsis: A GRIN WITHOUT A CAT is Chris Marker's epic film-essay on the worldwide political wars of the 60's and 70's: Vietnam, Bolivia, May '68, Prague, Chile, and the fate of the New Left. Released in... A GRIN WITHOUT A CAT is Chris Marker's epic film-essay on the worldwide political wars of the 60's and 70's: Vietnam, Bolivia, May '68, Prague, Chile, and the fate of the New Left. Released in France in 1978, restored and "re-actualized" by Marker fifteen years later (after the fall of the Soviet Union), we are proud to release the film now for the first time in the United States. Described by Marker as "scenes of the Third World War," the film (the original French title is virtually untranslatable) is divided into two parts, each weaving together two strands: Part 1: Fragile Hands 1. From Vietnam to Che's death 2. May 1968 and all that Part 2: Severed Hands 1. From Spring in Prague to the Common Program of Government in France 2. From Chile to - to what? From 1967 (the year Marker argues was the real turning point) on, A GRIN WITHOUT A CAT is a sweeping, global contemplation of a defining ten years' political history. -- © 2001 First Run/Icarus Films [More]
Director: Chris Marker
Director: Chris Marker
Studio: First Run/Icarus Films
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Reviews for A Grin Without A Cat
It recreates the feel of the period, but in the end its obscurity undercuts its power.
A Grin Without a Cat plays more like a creative mix tape than a standard hunk of journalism.
Just to take in Grin’s first few moments, a mash-up of Battleship Potemkin and police whacking May ’68 protesters, is to see a mind sifting through chaos and making beautiful, critical sense of it.
A masterpiece among masterpieces, the two-part, three-hour A Grin Without a Cat is Chris Marker's most ambitious, clear-headed string of cinematic clauses and ideological couplets, and also his most impenetrable.
This slapdash documentary about left wing political movements is probably best understood in the original French and was a lot more relevant in 1977 when it was first made.
While it regards 1967 as the key turning point of the 20th century, and returns again and again to images of dissidents in the streets, it's alarmingly current.
An exhaustive investigation into the roots and after-effects of the revolutions and counter-revolutions that rocked France, the U.S., China, Latin America and Czechoslovakia in 1967 and 1968.
A timely look back at civil disobedience, anti-war movements and the power of strong voices.
Marker's incredible collection of newsreel footage -- TV footage from various countries, home movies and other celluloid wonders -- eventually shapes a scattered, pinwheel idea of the era's attitude.
This is a movie about the world at war with itself, and the result is riveting, sublime and unforgettable.
Although it's a bit smug and repetitive, this documentary engages your brain in a way few current films do.
Achieves a sort of filmic epiphany that revels in the true potential of the medium.
A work of extraordinary journalism, but it is also a work of deft and subtle poetry.
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