Classic Movie Review: Sans Soleil (1983)

Title: Sans Soleil
Release Date: March 2, 1983
Director: Chris Marker
Production Company: Argos Films
Summary/Review:

Sans Soleil is classified as a documentary but it’s really more of a series of vignettes and video essays arranged in an experimental matter.  It is the work of Chris Marker, creator of the equally experimental La Jetée, who presents himself as a fictional traveler who has sent his film to be described by the narrator (Alexandra Stewart). The original footage is largely from Japan, with a loose discussion of Japanese culture and customs, but also includes filmed in Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Iceland, Paris, and San Francisco.  The San Francisco segment is from a sequence that feels like a non-sequitur as the filmmaker visits sites from Vertigo.   I was up too late watching this film and started drifting off to sleep which I think only helped to accentuate the dreamlike qualities of this strange and wonderful film.

Rating: ****1/2

Podcast of the Week Ending March 13

Afropop Worldwide :: The Black History of the Banjo

Many people associate the banjo with white music from the rural Southern United States, but the instrument has its origins in Africa and is heard hear in a variety music styles of African and the African diaspora.

Futility Closet :: Eugene Bullard

The fascinating life of Eugene Bullard, a Black American who became an expatriate in France where he was a prizefighter, combat pilot in WWI, a nightclub owner who jammed with the great jazz artists of the day, and a spy in WWII. Someone make a biopic about this man, quick!

99% Invisible :: Artistic License

” I guess those are the two extremes in thought. It would seem to me that somewhere in between ‘Live free or die’ and ‘Famous potatoes’ the truth lies probably it’s a little closer to famous potatoes.” – George Carlin.

An episode about license plate design that touches on its promotional uses and issues of free speech.

Running Tally of Podcast of the Week Awards for 2021

• Afropop Worldwide – 1
• AirSpace – 1
• The Brattle Film Podcast – 1
• Code Switch – 1
• Consider This – 1
• Futility Closet – 1
• Have You Heard? – 1
• Hub History – 1
• Judas and the Black Messiah – Entire series
• LeVar Burton Reads – 1
• Lost Massachusetts – 1
• The Moth – 1
• The Memory Palace – 1
• 99% Invisible – 2
• Politically Re-Active – 2
• Radio Boston – 1
• Radiolab – 1
• Reparations: The Big Payback – 1
• Scientific American – 1
• Seizing Freedom – 1
• Sidedoor – 1
• Strong Songs – 1
• This American Life  – 1
• Throughline – 3
• Twenty Thousand Hertz – 1
• Up First – 1