What it’s about
Filmmaker/anthropologist Rouch and sociologist Morin spent one summer in France asking friends and strangers a simple question: Are you happy? The result is a cinematic, ethnographic experiment, delving into political, personal and social issues that reveal the human condition in that time and place. When subjects are asked to view the very film theyre in, Chronicle becomes a meta-examination of truth, performance, and the impact of an intrusive camera.
Why we love it
This pioneering work was credited with popularizing the cinema-verite movement, yet at the same time, it illuminates the obstacles inherent in putting truth on camera. The filmmakers honest intention to portray life as it is becomes blurred by the cameras presence. Nevertheless, its a fascinating view of French life: students, workers, artists, African immigrants, Holocaust survivors, and a St. Tropez starlet all extemporize on happiness, racism, and Colonial wars. The astounding ending casts the whole film in a new light as were forced to question the truth of what happened on-camera. Chronicle is aptly named, as it indeed chronicles a fascinating slice of Parisian life.
Jean Rouch, Edgar Morin, Regis Debray, Marcelline Loridan Ivens Jean Rouch, Edgar Morin