LE JOLI MAI Movie Review

Chris Marker is an extraordinary artist; his films are varied, bold, and utterly fresh in their concept and concerns. His Le Joli Mai was conceived as a two-part examination of Paris in May of 1962, the month that the war in Algeria came to an end. Since this was, in effect, the first time France had been fully at peace since 1939, Marker wanted to document the city at this important moment in history. Part one of the film, titled A Prayer From the Eiffel Tower, is an overview of ordinary life in the city—salesmen, lovers, poets and children go about their daily business. Part two, The Return of Fantomas, is a more overtly political analysis of Paris, in which street demonstrators and students explain their positions, their anger, their fear and their heartbreak. In the film's stirring epilogue, which focuses on a prison, Marker draws a parallel; he suggests that unburdened by France's colonialist adventures, its citizens may now look upon their city as if they themselves had been released from jail, and are breathing the air of freedom for the first time in decades. Beautifully photographed, poetic and elliptical, Le Joli Mai remains an audacious encapsulation of a significant moment in modern history. Narrated by Yves Montand and Simone Signoret in both the French and English versions.

NEXT STOP … La Jetée, The Koumiko Mystery, The Battle of Chile

1962 180m/B FR D: Chris Marker. VHS FCT