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A Grin Without a Cat (Chris Marker)

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Top Films of 2024 • 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

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