Review of Sans Soleil (1983) by Joseph S — 07 Aug 2009

I was disapointed with how simplistic this was. Tokyo is an ultra-modern futureworld, with a rich glorious history, all electric lights and ancient festivals. Africa is a war torn, place populated by people of quiet dignity, women who wont look at his camera, and soldiers who make him feel bad for the using the word guerilla to describe a type of film maker. San Francsico is where Vertigo was shot, and he takes a tour through all the shooting locations. Hapiness is a photograph of blonde children in switzerland standing on a road.

There were some interesting moments, images, and ideas floating around here; the temple of the cats, the various parades, etc. But Marker's dialogue never rises above that of an intellectual tourist, not necesarilly a bad thing, if organized correctly, but it becomes clear very quickly the role playing game he's playing, he's a wide eyed capitalist when visitng Tokyo, a guilt ridden Marxist when visiting Africa, a film geek in the states, and a melancholic post modernist in Europe. Compare how much footage there is of Japan to that of Africa, and this films preferences speak for themselves. Although having a woman narrate for him, was a good choice, probably the films best.

It's a cool idea for a travelouge/film essay, but it never delivers on it's intellectual and visual promise, it just sprawls out and repeats itself again and again.

Also it's too long, had it ended about twenty minutes before it does, an obvious and more concise end point like his idea for the end for the world sci-fi film, but then it goes on again, back to the east then to the west, back to the east and back to the west, back to the...you get where I'm going with this.

Another movie I now own, which I probably won't watch again. Maybe Terry Gilliam will come along and 12 Monkey's this too. It's better to look at then to listen to.