Review of Sans Soleil (1983) by Ben W — 24 Jul 2008

If you ever wanted to know what a self-indulgent film looks like, rent this one. some of the images that marker assembled are wonderful. a few arent. but its the voice-over narration that kills this concept.

I love a good film essay. im a big fan of orson welles f for fake. welles film was focused and pointed. sans soleil is so amorphous, that it borders on complete incoherence. its basically like going to a church for art people and having the preacher there spend nearly 2 hours on a sermon.

a sermon that is just about as add as it could possibly be. the thing about the narration is that a good portion of it talks about the concepts of art and creation and how we can do that in the world we now live in.

and the thing that bothers me about that is that art should never be restricted by one persons viewpoint. its irresponsible. sure you can give us your take on it but really wed rather just see you make art rather than try to make art while giving us the commentary on what youre making.

thats our job to do the commentary. and dont give me the excuse that he wanted to be like proust who does seem to do something like that in his in search of lost time. marker could never have been the artist that proust was.