Chronicle of a Summer - Chronique d'un été (1961) (Criterion Collection)

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Few films can claim to be as influential to the course of cinema history as Chronicle of a Summer. The fascinating result of a collaboration between filmmaker-anthropologist Jean Rouch (Moi, un noir) and sociologist Edgar Morin, this vanguard work of what Morin would term cinéma verité is a brilliantly conceived and realized sociopolitical diagnosis of the early sixties in France. By simply interviewing a group of Paris residents in the summer of 1960-beginning with the provocative and eternal question "Are you happy?" and expanding to political issues, including the ongoing Algerian War-Rouch and Morin reveal the hopes and dreams of a wide array of people, from artists to factory workers, from an Italian émigré to an African student. Chronicle of a Summer`s penetrative approach gives us a document of a time and place with extraordinary emotional depth.