The Marines
Early Short Films of the French New Wave
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21m
Directed by François Reichenbach • Documentary • 1957 • 21 minutes
François Reichenbach follows a group of young men from the day they enlist in the US Marine Corps, all the way through basic training. The power of this is twofold. It lies in the poetic visuals focused on the men’s faces and expressions (scared, determined, chastened), and in the critical commentary, which questions the need to humiliate, threaten, and even endanger the lives of these recruits. Filmed around the time of the Ribbon Creek incident, which saw the drowning death of six Parris Island recruits on a night-time forced march, this original version of the film was suppressed by the US military, which demanded changes to Reichenbach’s anti-militarist commentary.
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All the Boys Are Called Patrick
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The Song of Styrene (Le chant du styr...
Directed by Alain Resnais • Documentary • 1957 • 13 minutes
Recently restored and digitized in 2K!
THE SONG OF STYRENE is the perfect example of how to turn a commissioned industrial film into a lyrical, satirical film masterpiece. When the young Alain Resnais was asked by the Péchiney plastics...
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Ô saisons ô châteaux
Directed by Agnès Varda • Documentary • With Danièle Delorme • 1956 • 21 minutes
This early Agnès Varda short looks at the castles of the Loire Valley — and the unusual histories and personalities behind them. Punctuated by first-person accounts, excerpts from well-known poems, and stylish re-cr...
