A Grin Without a Cat is Marker’s epic exploration of a period he called the “Third World War”: 1967 to 1977. (After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Marker reworked the film.) Divided into two parts, Marker explores, in a distinct personal essay-meets-found footage-meets-agitprop style, the Vietnam War, Che Guevara’s death, May 1968, and upheavals in Prague and Chile. Through collage and commentary, A Grin Without a Cat resists definitive closure on a remarkable, and traumatic, decade.

DIRECTOR: Chris Marker. 1977. 180 min. France. Color. French. 35mm.

All film screenings in The Path of the Cat: Chris Marker’s Centennial series are available here. 

Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.