A Grin Without a Cat

Director: Chris Marker

1977 / 180min / DCP

Grin Without a Cat (its title refers to Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat, and to the vague, intangible substance of socialist revolution) is Marker’s magnum opus: a three-hour essay film that surveys the worldwide political upheavals of the ’60s and ’70s, with particular emphasis on the New Left in France and armed resistance movements in Latin America. “The figures of an intricate game are developing, a game whose decoding will give historians of the future—if they are still around—a very hard time. A weird game. Its rules change as the match evolves. To start with, the super powers’ rivalry transforms itself not only into a Holy Alliance of the Rich against the Poor, but also into a selective co-elimination of Revolutionary Vanguards, wherever bombs would endanger sources of raw materials. As well as into the manipulation of these vanguards to pursue goals that are not their own. During the last 10 years, some groups of forces (often more instinctive than organized) have been trying to play the game themselves—even if they knocked over the pieces. Wherever they tried, they failed. Nevertheless, it’s been their being that has the most profoundly transformed politics in our time. This film intends to show some of the steps of this transformation.” —Chris Marker

Part of Under the Pavement, the Beach