Grind Without a cat

Chris Marker

France / 1977 / 180´

“I do not brag about having obtained a dialectical film. But I have tried for once (having abused the exercise of power through the leading commentary) to give back to the viewer through the assembling “his” comment, that is, his power,” says Chris Marker regarding his film Le fond de l’air est rouge. And each viewer needs context,  and in turn, is free to read this monumental work of compilation of images, interspersed by Marker’s voice, which is composed of two parts: The fragile hands and The severed hands. The film is a clash regarding the socialist utopia and the left parties, a denunciation of the manipulations and vileities of the global war, a whole story made up of fragments. Should we see it with a Latin American perspective, it is a clamor of a history in motion that perhaps we do not remember: Allende and his great speeches before workers, the gestures of his daughter before the suicide, Fidel, the multiple Fideles represented by himself and the death of the Ché, among others, revive us the memory of the gestures of a political cinema and a look, not without criticism, that seeks inner strength, firmness, and irony in political characters. Finally, Marker reminds us that the true authors of this film, which are the multiple camera and sound operators, the witnesses, and activists, were not consulted, and below an apparent didactic discourse, he shows us how the film is against the Powers that want us to lose our memory.

Review: Maria Luna

AWARDS / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Nominated for best edition for the César Awards. 

Rotterdam Film Festival Selection, 1978

Production Company: DOVIDIS. | Photography Pierre-William Glenn, Willy Kurant | Sound: Luciano Berio

Available from October 26th to November 1st, on the Virtual Theatre MIDBO for participants enrolled in the Seminar Thinking the real: Freedoms in Transit.