Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

A Grin Without a Cat (Chris Marker)

Staff Picks • 2h 57m

Directed by Chris Marker • Documentary • 1977 • 178 minutes

Newly restored! A GRIN WITHOUT A CAT is Chris Marker's epic film-essay on the worldwide political wars of the 60's and 70's: Vietnam, Bolivia, May '68, Prague, Chile, and the fate of the New Left.

Released in France in 1978, restored and "re-actualized" by Marker fifteen years later (after the fall of the Soviet Union), we are proud to release the film now for the first time in the United States.

Described by Marker as "scenes of the Third World War," the film (the original French title is virtually untranslatable) is divided into two parts, each weaving together two strands:

Part 1: Fragile Hands
1. From Vietnam to Che's death
2. May 1968 and all that

Part 2: Severed Hands
1. From Spring in Prague to the Common Program of Government in France
2. From Chile to - to what?

From 1967 (the year Marker argues was the real turning point) on, A GRIN WITHOUT A CAT is a sweeping, global contemplation of a defining ten years' political history.

Tags
68, 1968, a grin without a cat, allende, anthropology and archaeology, bolivia, bravo, castro, cat, che, chile, chris, citizenship, communism, coup, cultural anthropology, de, debray, documentary, douglas, essay, europe, expository, film, fond, france, gaulle, grin, guevara, icarus films, invasion, left, mao, marker, marxism and communism, may, new, nixon, ovid, paris, political, political philosophy, politics and political science, prague, regis, revolution, rouge, s_0041, s_0065, s_0186, s_0230, s_0231, s_0286, s_0339, social issues, social movements and activism, soviet union, strike, striking, students, title_g, video, vietnam johnson, war, war and peace, western europe, without, world regions

Up Next in Staff Picks

  • Bless Their Little Hearts
    1:25:38
    Bless Their Little Hearts

    Bless Their Little Hearts

    Directed by Billy Woodberry • Drama • With Nate Hardman, Kaycee Moore • 1983 • 80 minutes

    Searching for steady work, Charlie (Nate Hardman) views his chronic unemployment as a kind of spiritual trial. But selling a few catfish can’t sustain a family of five while his wife, Andais (Kaycee Moore)...

  • Shortbus (John Cameron Mitchell)
    1:41:24
    Shortbus (John Cameron Mitchell)

    Shortbus (John Cameron Mitchell)

    Directed by John Cameron Mitchell • Drama • With Sook-Yin Lee, Paul Dawson, Justin Vivian Bond • 2006 • 101 minutes

    NSFW. Contains nudity and graphic depictions of sex.

    John Cameron Mitchell’s SHORTBUS explores the lives of several emotionally challenged characters as they navigate the comic an...

  • David Holzman's Diary
    1:13:09
    David Holzman's Diary

    David Holzman's Diary

    Directed by Jim McBride • Drama • With Eileen Dietz, Kit Carson • 1967 • 73 minutes

    David Holzman's Diary is one of the most influential films of the 1960s, an "ingenious puzzle movie" (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader) that charts the self-destruction of a media-saturated youth. As news from the Viet...

×