Chronicle of a Summer

Chronicle of a Summer

Directed by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin • 1961 • France

Few films can claim as much influence on the course of cinema history as CHRONICLE OF A SUMMER. The fascinating result of a collaboration between filmmaker-anthropologist Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin, this vanguard work of what Morin termed cinéma- vérité is a brilliantly conceived and realized sociopolitical diagnosis of the early sixties in France. Simply by 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.

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Chronicle of a Summer
  • Chronicle of a Summer

    Directed by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin • 1961 • France

    Few films can claim as much influence on the course of cinema history as CHRONICLE OF A SUMMER. The fascinating result of a collaboration between filmmaker-anthropologist Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin, this vanguard work of what Mor...

Extras

  • Un été + 50

    This 2011 documentary by Florence Dauman interweaves outtakes from CHRONICLES OF A SUMMER with new interviews with its subjects, including Marceline Loridan, and codirector Edgar Morin.

  • Jean Rouch on CHRONICLE OF A SUMMER

    In this interview, conducted by Louis Baissat and originally broadcast on the January 24, 1962, episode of the television program “Rhône-Alpes actualités,” director Jean Rouch discusses CHRONICLE OF A SUMMER and its relationship to the burgeoning French New Wave.

  • Marceline Loridan on CHRONICLE OF A SUMMER, 1961

    In the following interview, conducted by François Chalais and originally broadcast on the May 7, 1961, episode of the television program “Reflets de Cannes,” Marceline Loridan, one of CHRONICLE OF A SUMMER’s main subjects, discusses her deportation to Auschwitz and the role that past played in th...

  • Faye Ginsburg on CHRONICLE OF A SUMMER

    In this October 2012 interview, anthropology professor Faye Ginsburg discusses CHRONICLE OF A SUMMER in the context of Jean Rouch’s career.

  • Damien Chazelle on CHRONICLE OF A SUMMER

    The director of LA LA LAND presents Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin’s revolutionary documentary in Madison, Wisconsin, and examines its pivotal place in the history of nonfiction film with professor Kelley Conway.