notyou2188

I recently saw this at the Siskel Theater with no real expectations, and I think I can safely say that this film could quite possibly be the worst film I've ever seen. I was fortunate (unfortunate?) enough to have attended a screening which was presented by a documentary film maker who cited the brilliance of Marker's work in regards to how it captured Paris during a pivotal and emotional moment-- by portraying on the screen everyday citizens engaged in conversations ranging from the whimsical to more serious, you get a great picture of life in Paris during this time.

Nope. This movie is essentially Chris Marker jerking himself off in front of the camera for nearly two and a half hours. Between the self indulgent 'poems', the still shots which have no coherence, and the utter lack of an interviewing style other than Marker trying to undermine absolutely everything anyone says, it is clear from the outset Marker has no interest in anything other than showing how self important he is.

I enjoy challenging films and documentaries, do not get me wrong. This film, however, is an absolute mess. There is no coherence-- interviews have very little structure, which in many ways is interesting, however, when they serve little purpose other than for the interviewer to undermine his interviewees and impose his 'intelligence' you have a problem. When the interviews are haphazard and uninteresting, the editing rough, 'artistic' shots which serve no purpose other than to draw out the length of the film are prevalent, and an utter lack of rhyme or reason predominate throughout a film you have a serious problem.

There will probably be some people who enjoy this film, and that's okay. I, however, feel as though it was utter vomit.

I had little idea what was happening during this movie. That being said, I've read books 1-4, and I recently (read: three months ago) re-watched all the movies up until this one. Those movies stand on their own-- you don't need to read the books to appreciate them or be entertained.

That's not quite the case with this movie. There's a lot that's going on. And the crazy thing is, there's a lot of time spent on drawing out scenes which makes no sense. So pretty much, you have these long drawn out scenes, then you have a flurry of story elements and characters thrown at you that anyone who hasn't read the book will be confused by. Apparently a lot of these plot points will be explained in the second movie, mainly everything regarding what the hell was going on, why the sword was where it was, how they found stuff, etc. But frankly, if you haven't read the book, you will just be disappointed and feel betrayed. A great deal of plot points make no sense unless you already know what's happening. That's the main problem with this movie.

But is it a bad movie? Not really. It definitely has some entertaining parts (particularly in the second half of the movie), but it does have some cringe worthy, confusing, and frankly lame sequences. If you've read the book I can almost guarantee you will enjoy the movie. The problem is, this is a movie-- you shouldn't have to rely on the book to get the full experience.