Chronicle of a Summer (France, 1961) Jean Rouch & Edgar Morin
*Acknowledging the presence of the filmmakers and the camera*
Rouch regularly makes his filmmaking part of his films. This goes beyond showing the film crew is present; even the filmmaking process is part of the film itself. For instance, Chronicle of a Summer includes discussions of the filmmakers with protagonists about going out on the streets to interview people; we see the protagonists trying this in 1960 completely new method on the streets of Paris, scaring some people with their (unfamiliar) microphone and unusual question ‘Are you happy?’. Such a question is unusual, certaily at the time, because it is so undirected. People don’t really know what to answer on the question, which results in some unexpected responses. The film shows also many conversations between the filmmakers and the protagonists, a mixed group of Parisian workers and students, about how they see their future given their personal histories and current situations.
At the end of the film we see many of the participants in a projection room, watching the film and discussing its value and truthfulness. The last sequence of the film shows Rouch and Morin strolling between glass cases with ethnographic exhibits in the Musée de l’Homme, discussing the reactions to the screening. They conclude that the film provokes a discussion rather than simply communicating the ideas they developed while making the film. Hiding the filmmaking process in Chronique d’un Été would have been impossible; Rouch and Morin are as much part of the film as their protagonists and the people on the streets of Paris. Including the filmmaking process in the film is an appropriate and elegant acknowledgement of this.
Rouch and Morin make many interventions in the situations they film. These interventions change and often even create these situations. That makes the film (and the cinéma vérité subgenre it represents) very different from observing without interference as direct cinema filmmakers like Pennebaker propagate. Chronicle of a Summer is very transparant though because it shows the interventions it makes and lets viewers decide for themselves what is true and what not.
About the film
As an anthropologist, Jean Rouch did not see how he could exercise his profession without being a filmmaker, so he combined these two disciplines from the beginning of his career, in the 1940s. He spend much of his time in West-Africa, but also studied Parisiens. He made his best known film with sociologist Edgar Morin in Paris: Chronicle of a Summer (1961). The film marks the beginning of cinéma vérité, the French counterpart of American direct cinema. Central to cinéma vérité is the notion of shared cinema, based on and inextricably connected to Rouch’s practice of shared anthropology. The idea of sharing comes from the wish to do ethnography on a much more equal basis than traditionally was done.
You can order this dvd from FNAC
Chronicle of a Summer (France, 1961) Jean Rouch & Edgar Morin
*Acknowledging the presence of the filmmakers and the camera*
Rouch regularly makes his filmmaking part of his films. This goes beyond showing the film crew is present; even the filmmaking process is part of the film itself. For instance, Chronicle of a Summer includes discussions of the filmmakers with protagonists about going out on the streets to interview people; we see the protagonists trying this in 1960 completely new method on the streets of Paris, scaring some people with their (unfamiliar) microphone and unusual question ‘Are you happy?’. Such a question is unusual, certaily at the time, because it is so undirected. People don’t really know what to answer on the question, which results in some unexpected responses. The film shows also many conversations between the filmmakers and the protagonists, a mixed group of Parisian workers and students, about how they see their future given their personal histories and current situations.
At the end of the film we see many of the participants in a projection room, watching the film and discussing its value and truthfulness. The last sequence of the film shows Rouch and Morin strolling between glass cases with ethnographic exhibits in the Musée de l’Homme, discussing the reactions to the screening. They conclude that the film provokes a discussion rather than simply communicating the ideas they developed while making the film. Hiding the filmmaking process in Chronique d’un Été would have been impossible; Rouch and Morin are as much part of the film as their protagonists and the people on the streets of Paris. Including the filmmaking process in the film is an appropriate and elegant acknowledgement of this.
Rouch and Morin make many interventions in the situations they film. These interventions change and often even create these situations. That makes the film (and the cinéma vérité subgenre it represents) very different from observing without interference as direct cinema filmmakers like Pennebaker propagate. Chronicle of a Summer is very transparant though because it shows the interventions it makes and lets viewers decide for themselves what is true and what not.
About the film
As an anthropologist, Jean Rouch did not see how he could exercise his profession without being a filmmaker, so he combined these two disciplines from the beginning of his career, in the 1940s. He spend much of his time in West-Africa, but also studied Parisiens. He made his best known film with sociologist Edgar Morin in Paris: Chronicle of a Summer (1961). The film marks the beginning of cinéma vérité, the French counterpart of American direct cinema. Central to cinéma vérité is the notion of shared cinema, based on and inextricably connected to Rouch’s practice of shared anthropology. The idea of sharing comes from the wish to do ethnography on a much more equal basis than traditionally was done.
You can order this dvd from FNAC