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      A Grin Without a Cat

      Released Dec 31, 1977 4h 0m Documentary List
      92% 24 Reviews Tomatometer 87% 50+ Ratings Audience Score From the young anti-war protesters in America to the death of Che Guevara and the rise of leaders like Fidel Castro and Mao Tse-Tung, this documentary examines the rise and fall of the lefty movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The first segment delves into the beginnings of this liberal faction, focusing on 1967, when anti-Vietnam fervor sweeps the United States and invigorates the political debate. In part two, the disintegration of the movement, dubbed the "new left," is laid out. Read More Read Less
      A Grin Without a Cat

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      Critics Consensus

      Grin Without a Cat is a 4-hour mash-up doc on civil disobedience and revolution that collides together with the same power of its recorded subjects.

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      Critics Reviews

      View All (24) Critics Reviews
      Joshua Rothkopf Time Out Just to take in Grin's first few moments, a mash-up of Battleship Potemkin and police whacking May '68 protesters, is to see a mind sifting through chaos and making beautiful, critical sense of it. Rated: 6/6 May 6, 2009 Full Review Eric Henderson Slant Magazine A masterpiece among masterpieces, the two-part, three-hour A Grin Without a Cat is Chris Marker's most ambitious, clear-headed string of cinematic clauses and ideological couplets, and also his most impenetrable. Rated: 4/4 May 5, 2009 Full Review John Hartl Seattle Times While it regards 1967 as the key turning point of the 20th century, and returns again and again to images of dissidents in the streets, it's alarmingly current. Rated: 3.5/4 Jan 17, 2003 Full Review Alexander Miller Film Inquiry A Grin Without a Cat is a potently poetic diatribe regarding political fervor, social upheaval, and oppression of all kinds. Jan 23, 2021 Full Review Stuart Klawans The Nation Epic (or perhaps encyclopedic, or maybe satiric). Sep 27, 2018 Full Review Louis Proyect rec.arts.movies.reviews The greatest documentary ever made about the struggle for socialism. The real thing, I should add, rather than the epithet applied by Glenn Beck to the Democratic Party and its leader Barack Hoover. Jun 18, 2010 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

      View All (14) audience reviews
      Audience Member cinegeek.de Our Daily Free Stream: Chris Marker - A Grin Without A Cat (engl. subt.). Chris Marker, der 2012 im Alter von 91 Jahren starb, ist so etwas, was die Kritiker als Pionier des Essay Films bezeichnen. 1962 schuf er mit dem halbstündigen Kurzfilm La Jetee einen der einflussreichsten Science Fiction Filme mit dem Motiv der Zeitreise. Marker hat nie wieder einen Film wie La Jetee gemacht und oft betont, dass es auch nie sein Lieblingsfilm war. Trotzdem verbindet man seine weiteren - fast 60! - Filme immer wieder mit La Jeteee, so wie ich das auch gerade mache. Einfach, weil sie alle die menschliche Wahrnehmung, Geschichte und das kollektive Gedächtnis erforschen. A Grin Without A Cat ist eine dieser erfrischenden Betrachtungen von Historie und Anthropologie, die im Grunde ausdrückt, wie widerwertig Marker die Annahme von "Objektivität" gewesen sein muss. Immer gab es in Markers Erforschungen einen Anklang an seine eigene "Cinephilia", denn wie so viele französische Autoren zu Beginn der 60er arbeitete Marker zuvor als Kritiker. Im Grunde blieb er das auch Zeit seines Lebens. Bestimmt gibt es so einige, die seine diskussionswütigen Filme als frustrierend und viel zu "französisch" empfinden. Markers Filme sind das auch, durch und durch französisch im Sinne der intellektuellen Tradition im Nachbarland, einer diskursiven Ermittlung. Man stelle sich den eigenen Standpunkt als Gipsabruck vor und bearbeite ihn mit einer Fräse, die dem allgemeinen intellektuellen Stand entspricht. Hast du es vor Augen, wie hier die Späne fliegen? Was bedeutet das für A Grin Without A Cat? Markers Standpunkt dazu müsste so lauten: Es ist unmöglich, einen Film über die weltweiten Kriege in Vietnam oder Bolivien, den Mai '68, Prag, Chile und das Schicksal der Linken zu drehen. Der Titel Le fond de l'air est rouge drückt das aus: Die Essenz der Luft ist Rot. Im Grunde ein deprimierendes Thema: Die Kluft zwischen dem Versprechen und der Realität der globalen sozialistischen Revolution. Marker kann keinen Film über Vietnam drehen, wohl aber einen, der über Vietnam nachdenkt. Sein Werk steckt voller Anspielungen, ist ungeheuer eindringend und sehr bewegend (was ich gar nicht erwartet hätte!). Nicht zuletzt ist A Grin Without A Cat filmisch ungeheuer reich! Das Leben, wie der Verstand es wahrnimmt, klingt hier nach als Echo auf das Leben ausserhalb. (Dazu gibts unsere Film List Nouvelle Vague Rive Gauche auf cinegeek.de Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Really good movie about the old New Left and why it tanked. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member A totally different approach to making a film. Some parts artistic, some times political some times educational, yet quite fascinating to watch right through even a 4 hour journey. A huge step by Chris Marker to aim as possible to create something memorable and different and he certainly achieved that. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Unbelievable melange of '60s and '70s leftists fighting the power and eventually falling into disarray. Chris Marker's idiosyncratic style (a cat parade, bemused voiceover narration) encases a hypnotic collection of found footage of world leaders (Castro, Mao, Allende), forgotten European union officials, some communists, the sadly misled, and a million students engaged with political theory in a way we may never see again. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member This film is more than anything else interested in discrediting communism, revolution. Which is in keeping with its (naturally confused and anemic) support for social democracy (in Czechoslovakia, but not in France). Fundamentally it shares the same view as the bourgeois housewife (de)crying "anarchy". Ultimately a cynical, anti-political film (befitting a cat lover). Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Chris Marker film that reviews the schism between revolutionary and political communists. Socio-political history of the 60s-70s with a French point of view. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis From the young anti-war protesters in America to the death of Che Guevara and the rise of leaders like Fidel Castro and Mao Tse-Tung, this documentary examines the rise and fall of the lefty movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The first segment delves into the beginnings of this liberal faction, focusing on 1967, when anti-Vietnam fervor sweeps the United States and invigorates the political debate. In part two, the disintegration of the movement, dubbed the "new left," is laid out.
      Director
      Chris Marker
      Screenwriter
      Chris Marker
      Genre
      Documentary
      Original Language
      French (Canada)
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Dec 31, 1977, Original
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Dec 18, 2020
      Runtime
      4h 0m