In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Tuesday 25 October 2011

Le Mystère Koumiko (1967)

Chris Marker’s films are like hidden treasure, they can be so infuriatingly hard to find but make the effort and the rewards are great.
At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics he chances upon a woman in the crowd, Koumiko, so he follows her and through a candid interview contrasts the minutiae of her life with the life of all Japan.
The second half of the film gets to the very heart of Koumiko. It's Marker’s film, but it's her film also, a product of chance, both seemingly subjective and objective at the same time. That ability to make impossibilities real is one of the things that separates the French film-maker from his peers.

4 journeys through time, place and personality out of 5

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