Coming to theatres today, Friday, September 13: LE JOLI MAI
Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme’s look at 1962 Paris premiered at Cannes in 1963. In its original version, it screened at the New York Film Festival and Venice, but in more recent years has not been available in the US. The restored version, re-edited according to the late Marker’s wishes under the supervision of Lhomme, debuted at Cannes earlier this year, and just screened at Toronto.
Made simultaneously with his classic LA JETÉE, Marker, with cinematographer and co-director Lhomme, spent 55 hours on the streets of Paris interviewing a broad range of people in the wake of the end of the Algerian War – notably, the first time in more than two decades when France was at peace. Split into two parts, the first broadly personal, the second more public and political, the film provides a sweeping impression of a city and its people at a unique time in its recent history. Part I, “A Prayer from the Eiffel Tower,” effortlessly moves from a stressed shopkeeper to a woman who plants plastic flowers to an excited family finally moving out of a one-room hovel after a seven-year wait – subjects and scenes that in their randomness nevertheless create an impression of the everyday dreams of the working class. After a musical interlude, Part II, “The Return of Fantômas,” suggests a darker side, named as it is after the infamous pulp fiction criminal mastermind and star of Louis Feuillade’s classic film serials. Interview subjects here cover a range of more explicitly political themes, from the struggles of young Algerian and Beninese immigrant workers with racism, to a former priest struggling between religion and socialism, to seemingly frivolous exchanges about whether dictatorship can be tolerable. Notable at the time for presenting a side of Paris that was rarely, if ever, seen, Marker and Lhomme’s documentary serves as an idiosyncratic and candid snapshot of a city that exists beyond its familiar landmarks and culture.
what (not) to doc 