"I don't dare to think," says a French soldier, about to
fight in Algeria. But as a subject in Marker's early documentary, he has
no choice, and neither do we: thinking is what this film and film-maker
are all about. Roving the Paris streets in May 1962, Marker gets
fascinating, oblique insights into the temper of the times - but
already, he's reaching beyond conventional forms. The concerns and
style he'd later develop in essay films like Sans Soleil are apparent in
the questions he asks - what makes you happy? what do money and freedom
mean? - as well as in the hypnotic Simone Signoret narrations that
book-end this film.
