Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Chris Marker's Level Five (1997) is playing September 17 - October 17, 2017 in most countries around the world as part of the retrospective Chris Marker: An Essayist from the Future.Midway into Chris Marker’s Level Five (1997), Laura (Catherine Belkhodja) ponders aloud what ethnologists of the future might think of the video diaries she makes throughout the course of the film. Answering to their presumed curiosity, she tells those future detectives, “Yes it was customary for such tribes to address a familiar and protective spirit known as a computer…They’d consult on everything, it kept their memory. In fact, they no longer had a memory. It was their memory.” If one had to make a sweeping statement about this dense, multivalent film, one could do worse than suggest that Level Five’s subject is this externalization of memory into media addressed by Laura,...
- 9/24/2017
- MUBI
Japanese RPG Yo-Kai Watch is finally heading to the Nintendo 3Ds in Europe, it's been announced...
Well, it's only taken about two years. Having already conquered Japan, Level Five's action RPG Yo-Kai Watch is finally heading to European 3Ds systems, Nintendo has announced.
About a boy who acquires a magical wrist watch from a Gashapon machine, which allows him to both see and capture Yo-Kai - spirits from Japanese folkore - Yo-Kai Watch has already prompted the release of a myriad anime and manga spin-offs, while a second sequel is already being planned in its native country.
It was announced a few months ago that Yo-Kai Watch toys are set to invade Europe and America, which seemed to make an appearance from the game itself all but inevitable. We don't have a firm release date to hand for the Pokemon-like RPG yet, but we'll let you know as soon as one appears.
Well, it's only taken about two years. Having already conquered Japan, Level Five's action RPG Yo-Kai Watch is finally heading to European 3Ds systems, Nintendo has announced.
About a boy who acquires a magical wrist watch from a Gashapon machine, which allows him to both see and capture Yo-Kai - spirits from Japanese folkore - Yo-Kai Watch has already prompted the release of a myriad anime and manga spin-offs, while a second sequel is already being planned in its native country.
It was announced a few months ago that Yo-Kai Watch toys are set to invade Europe and America, which seemed to make an appearance from the game itself all but inevitable. We don't have a firm release date to hand for the Pokemon-like RPG yet, but we'll let you know as soon as one appears.
- 4/7/2015
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
April 28 will herald the arrival of State of Decay‘s Year One Survival Edition on PC and Xbox One, and Microsoft has revealed that the remastered version will boast its own set of achievements not found in the original Xbox 360 release.
Running at native 1080p, the rerelease will also boast an handful of new features and fixes, including new monthly timed challenges that can be completed with friends or on your lonesome. Microsoft noted that completing these tests will unlock new content in the zombie title, which is likely to be cosmetic items such as outfits and character costumes.
Circling back to those aforementioned achievements though, and Year One Survival Edition will launch boasting no less than 1500 Gamerscore to get your eager hands on. These rewards encompass the main game itself, along with the two pieces of Dlc, State of Decay: Breakdown and State of Decay: Lifeline.
For a detailed...
Running at native 1080p, the rerelease will also boast an handful of new features and fixes, including new monthly timed challenges that can be completed with friends or on your lonesome. Microsoft noted that completing these tests will unlock new content in the zombie title, which is likely to be cosmetic items such as outfits and character costumes.
Circling back to those aforementioned achievements though, and Year One Survival Edition will launch boasting no less than 1500 Gamerscore to get your eager hands on. These rewards encompass the main game itself, along with the two pieces of Dlc, State of Decay: Breakdown and State of Decay: Lifeline.
For a detailed...
- 4/6/2015
- by Michael Briers
- We Got This Covered
Above: the November/December issue of Film Comment is upon us, featuring pieces on Interstellar, Inherent Vice, and Adieu au langage. The full program for BAMcinématek's 6th annual Migrating Forms festival has been announced. Soon-Mi Yoo's Songs From the North will be the opening film (check out our interview with Soon-Mi here), and Notebook contributor and friend Gina Telaroli's Here's to the Future! has its world premiere on December 13th. The full details can be seen here. The first reviews are in for Clint Eastwood's American Sniper. Here's Justin Chang's take for Variety:
"Although Steven Spielberg was set to direct before exiting the project last summer (just a few months after Kyle’s death in Texas at the age of 38), “American Sniper” turns out to be very much in Eastwood’s wheelhouse, emerging as arguably the director’s strongest, most sustained effort in the eight years since his...
"Although Steven Spielberg was set to direct before exiting the project last summer (just a few months after Kyle’s death in Texas at the age of 38), “American Sniper” turns out to be very much in Eastwood’s wheelhouse, emerging as arguably the director’s strongest, most sustained effort in the eight years since his...
- 11/12/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Director Chris Marker, best known to the general public for the spectacular short film La Jetée (a film that has inspired a wide range of films and filmmakers, most notably Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys), is currently at the center of a mini resurgence. His 1997 film Level Five was recently restored and has been making the Cinematheque rounds over the last year, culminating in an upcoming home video release care of the fine folks at Icarus Films.
The movie is a stand out of Marker's, easily on par with La Jetée, it's the story of a woman who, while working on a WWII video game, is also mourning the loss of her lover. It sounds innocuous enough but as is often the case with Marker's movies, there's a whole lot more going on not to mention that the [Continued ...]...
The movie is a stand out of Marker's, easily on par with La Jetée, it's the story of a woman who, while working on a WWII video game, is also mourning the loss of her lover. It sounds innocuous enough but as is often the case with Marker's movies, there's a whole lot more going on not to mention that the [Continued ...]...
- 9/9/2014
- QuietEarth.us
In Chris Marker's final feature film, a French computer scientist is developing a video game about the Battle of Okinawa while being haunted by the loss of her lover. Who else but Marker would make a film like "Level Five"? This mind-meltingly beautiful genre-crosser from 1997--15 years before Marker, best known for documentary "Sans Soleil" and sci-fi "La Jetee," died in 2012--is now headed to DVD and VOD from Icarus Films. More a visually hyperbolic cinematic essay than a narrative film -- as is the case for almost any Marker film -- "Level Five" arrives October 7. Watch the whacky, wonderful trailer below. More info from Icarus here.
- 9/9/2014
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
Level Five
Written & Directed by Chris Marker
France, 1997
As visual animals, to a large extent, something doesn’t truly exist until we see it. What, then, do we make of memories, which may seem just as real as any image, but are subject to degradation and bias? They are the ethereal made real; flights of fancy, fact and practical necessity. Level Five, produced in 1997 and recently restored for a limited North American release, finds accomplished film essayist, Chris Marker, questioning the nature of memory in the new digital age. Though his big ideas and haunting visuals never quite coalesce, Marker still provides a fascinating peek into the darkest corners of humanity.
“I won already, but we could go on if you like.”
Such is the game confronting our heroine, Laura (Catherine Belkhodja), who is tasked (by Marker himself) with reconstructing the Battle of Okinawa for a videogame. A pivotal battle...
Written & Directed by Chris Marker
France, 1997
As visual animals, to a large extent, something doesn’t truly exist until we see it. What, then, do we make of memories, which may seem just as real as any image, but are subject to degradation and bias? They are the ethereal made real; flights of fancy, fact and practical necessity. Level Five, produced in 1997 and recently restored for a limited North American release, finds accomplished film essayist, Chris Marker, questioning the nature of memory in the new digital age. Though his big ideas and haunting visuals never quite coalesce, Marker still provides a fascinating peek into the darkest corners of humanity.
“I won already, but we could go on if you like.”
Such is the game confronting our heroine, Laura (Catherine Belkhodja), who is tasked (by Marker himself) with reconstructing the Battle of Okinawa for a videogame. A pivotal battle...
- 8/25/2014
- by J.R. Kinnard
- SoundOnSight
Back on the big screen as part of Bam Rose Cinema's retrospective of his work, Chris Marker’s 1996 documentary “Level Five” is a staunch reminder of the singular cinematic oeuvre left behind by the filmmaker. The French visual essayist (“documentary” may be an insufficient descriptor for any of his films) grew up alongside exponents of the French New Wave, but was set apart by his unique approach to cinema and storytelling. Most renowned for the 1962 short masterpiece “La Jetée” (one of the most effective time travel movies ever made), and 1983’s documentary “Sans Soleil,” third in Sight And Sound’s all-time list of documentaries, Marker was fascinated with a number of anthropological themes. His work often resulted in visual collages touching upon history, war, collective memory, and modern technology. Any readers unfamiliar with Marker’s work shouldn't necessarily start with "Level Five," but Marker admirers will find much to savor from this intellectual.
- 8/18/2014
- by Nikola Grozdanovic
- The Playlist
From today through August 28, New York's BAMcinématek is presenting a comprehensive retrospective of films by Chris Marker. The highlight is the North American premiere of Level Five (1996). We gather reviews of this "playful, ruminative and melancholy" sci-fi "adventure" (New York Times) and point to overviews of the series, featuring not only Marker's best known works, La Jetée (1962) and Sans Soleil (1983), but also early travelogues, such as Sunday in Peking (1956) and A Letter from Siberia (1958), and political essays along the lines of A Grin Without a Cat (1977) and The Last Bolshevik (1993). » - David Hudson...
- 8/15/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
From today through August 28, New York's BAMcinématek is presenting a comprehensive retrospective of films by Chris Marker. The highlight is the North American premiere of Level Five (1996). We gather reviews of this "playful, ruminative and melancholy" sci-fi "adventure" (New York Times) and point to overviews of the series, featuring not only Marker's best known works, La Jetée (1962) and Sans Soleil (1983), but also early travelogues, such as Sunday in Peking (1956) and A Letter from Siberia (1958), and political essays along the lines of A Grin Without a Cat (1977) and The Last Bolshevik (1993). » - David Hudson...
- 8/15/2014
- Keyframe
It was only natural for Chris Marker to take to online culture as keenly as he did in his later years—in his quizzical, often unclassifiable cinema, where ultramodern technology shares space with humanity’s insistent past, he had envisioned linkages of disparate global data long before the Internet had its first dial-up connection. Marker’s 1997 feature Level Five (having its North American premiere August 14th as part of BAMcinématek’s comprehensive retrospective) finds the great, elusive essayist deep in cyber-territory. A hand, perhaps Marker’s own, maneuvers a tabletop computer mouse in the introductory Pov shot; the camera zooms into the pixelated blur of the machine’s monitor which is readily filled with superimpositions of nightscapes and faces. “What can these be,” asks a disembodied female voice, “but the playthings of a mad god who made us build them for him?”
That's William Gibson territory, and, indeed Level Five...
That's William Gibson territory, and, indeed Level Five...
- 8/14/2014
- by Fernando F. Croce
- MUBI
Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: What better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? This […]
The post This Week In Trailers: Before I Go To Sleep, Once Upon A Forest, The Tribe, Coherence, Level Five appeared first on /Film.
The post This Week In Trailers: Before I Go To Sleep, Once Upon A Forest, The Tribe, Coherence, Level Five appeared first on /Film.
- 7/5/2014
- by Christopher Stipp
- Slash Film
Experimental French director acclaimed for his post-apocalyptic film La Jetée
The essay film, a form pitched between documentary and personal reflection, exploring the subjectivity of the cinematic perspective, has now become an accepted genre. Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet, Jean-Luc Godard, Errol Morris and Michael Moore are among its main recent exponents, but Chris Marker, who has died aged 91, was credited with inventing the form.
Marker's creative use of sound, images and text in his poetic, political and philosophical documentaries made him one of the most inventive of film-makers. They looked forward to what is called "the new documentary", but also looked back to the literary essay in the tradition of Michel de Montaigne. Marker's interests lay in transitional societies – "life in the process of becoming history," as he put it. How do various cultures perceive and sustain themselves and each other in the increasingly intermingled modern world?
He was born Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve,...
The essay film, a form pitched between documentary and personal reflection, exploring the subjectivity of the cinematic perspective, has now become an accepted genre. Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet, Jean-Luc Godard, Errol Morris and Michael Moore are among its main recent exponents, but Chris Marker, who has died aged 91, was credited with inventing the form.
Marker's creative use of sound, images and text in his poetic, political and philosophical documentaries made him one of the most inventive of film-makers. They looked forward to what is called "the new documentary", but also looked back to the literary essay in the tradition of Michel de Montaigne. Marker's interests lay in transitional societies – "life in the process of becoming history," as he put it. How do various cultures perceive and sustain themselves and each other in the increasingly intermingled modern world?
He was born Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve,...
- 7/30/2012
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
In Sans Soleil, a cine-essay from 1983 that feels like it’s from 2083 (and remains the paragon of the form), the narrator speaks of an idea for a film. This imaginary film would be about a man on our planet, from the year 4001 Ad, who comes back in time to our era and is moved by the realization that in our time, people are capable of forgetting. You see, this time-traveler comes from a future where forgetting is impossible, where humans have figured out how to condition the brain to remember everything. In this future society, memories hold none of the emotional impact that they do for those who can forget, since “Total recall is memory anesthetized.” Our time-traveler thinks that it’s unjust that in our time, humans have to struggle to remember, as well as struggle to forget. In the typical nuanced fashion of the filmmaker, Chris Marker, the...
- 7/30/2012
- by Zachary Wigon
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
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