It recreates the feel of the period, but in the end its obscurity undercuts its power.
Comment
05/11/09
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A Grin Without A Cat (2002)
91
%
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Reviews Counted:22
Fresh:20
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.9/10
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... [More]
Director: Chris Marker
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Reviews for A Grin Without A Cat
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.
04/24/09
Although it's a bit smug and repetitive, this documentary engages your brain in a way few current films do.
08/29/02
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.
06/14/09
A work of extraordinary journalism, but it is also a work of deft and subtle poetry.
05/01/02
Top CriticIt's not your usual political doc.
10/15/09
A three-hour cinema master class.
06/18/02
No review available.
07/18/05
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.
05/05/09
More impressionistic than analytical, A Grin Without a Cat is a grand immersion.
04/30/02
Top CriticAn 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.
12/02/02
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.
11/07/02
A Grin Without a Cat plays more like a creative mix tape than a standard hunk of journalism.
05/07/09
Achieves a sort of filmic epiphany that revels in the true potential of the medium.
05/06/02
Fierce, glaring and unforgettable.
05/01/02
Top CriticWhile 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.
01/17/03
A timely look back at civil disobedience, anti-war movements and the power of strong voices.
11/08/02
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.
05/06/09
It's always fascinating to watch Marker the essayist at work.
05/01/02
This is a movie about the world at war with itself, and the result is riveting, sublime and unforgettable.
09/26/02
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