Sinopsis
Documentary. Chronicle of a Summer is widely regarded as an experimental and structurally innovative film and a key work of cinéma vérité and direct cinema. Directors Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin set out to capture the summer of 1960 in Paris on film. It’s less about events than it is about mood and feeling. Various participants are interviewed simply to find out their thoughts. The footage portrays a time and a place. It is also an examination of the art of movies. At the end of the film, Rouch and Morin show a rough cut of the movie to their interviewees and hear their thoughts.
Jean Rouch, born in 1917, was a French filmmaker and anthropologist. He is considered to be one of the founders of cinéma vérité in France. Rouch’s practice as a filmmaker, for over sixty years in Africa, was characterized by the idea of shared anthropology. Influenced by his discovery of surrealism in his early twenties, many of his films blur the line between fiction and documentary, creating a new style: ethnofiction. He was hailed by the French New Wave filmmakers as one of their own. His seminal film Me a Black (Moi, un noir) pioneered the technique of jump cut popularized by Jean-Luc Godard.
Edgar Morin, born in 1921, is a French philosopher and sociologist who has been internationally recognized for his work on complexity and “complex thought” (pensée complexe), and for his scholarly contributions to such diverse fields as media studies, politics, sociology, visual anthropology, ecology, education, and systems biology.
March, 26th 2019. 5:30pm
Filmoteca Española. Cine Doré
Section: A tribute to Marceline Loridan-Ivens
Year of production: 1961
Running time: 85’
Country: France
Language: French
Directors: Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch
Cast: Marceline Loridan-Ivens, Jacques Rivette, Régis Debray, Jean Pierre Sergent, Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch
Producers: Anatole Dauman and Philippe Lifchitz
Producing company: Argos Films
International Sales: Sigmadis
Main Festivals and Awards: International Critics Prize, Cannes Film Festival, 1961
