214:. The images are frequently set to music and cut to the music's pace. The narrator focuses on the emotional qualities of the objects, and discusses the perception of these works of art, craft, and utility from a historical and contemporary European perspective. Only occasionally does the film provide the geographical origin, time period, or other contextual information about the objects. The idea of a dead statue is explained as a statue which has lost its original significance and become reduced to a museum object, similarly to a dead person who can only be found in history books. Interwoven with the objects are a few scenes of Africans performing traditional music and dances, as well as the death of a disemboweled gorilla.
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said in an interview in 1996. Marker, who knew
Resnais, offered to make the film together, because it would be more "fun and enjoyable". Both embarked on the adventure of the chief operator Ghislain Cloquet. According to Resnais, the original intent was not to make an anticolonial film, but only a
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are shown almost as if they were alive: "Marker's camera treats all subjects in front of its lens without differentiating between humans, statues, animals, landscapes, architecture, or signs. The magic of cinema both imbues inanimate objects with life and carries out the mortification of living
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to censor the second half of the film until 1963. The first time the full version was publicly screened in France was in
November 1968, as part of a program with thematically related short films, under the label "Cinéma d'inquiétude". It premiered on DVD in 2004. The filmmaker
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During the last third of the film, the modern commercialisation of
African culture is problematised. The film argues that colonial presence has compelled African art to lose much of its idiosyncratic expression, in order to appeal to
234:, and a jazz drummer intercut with scenes from a confrontation between police and labour demonstrators. Lastly the narrator argues that we should regard African and European art history as one inseparable human culture.
255:
subjects," something she also connects to the footage of the dying gorilla. Alter further writes that as the film asserts that colonialism is responsible for the "disenchantment and demystification" of
African culture,
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previously had been replaced by
European. In the final segment, the film comments on the position of black Africans themselves in contemporary Europe and North America. Footage is seen from a
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film about
African art. However, when the filmmakers started to do research, they were struck by the fact that African art was exhibited at the ethnological
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like art from elsewhere. As research continued, the disintegrating effects of colonialism became more prominent in the filmmakers' approach to the subject.
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and the effects colonialism has had on how it is perceived. The film won the 1954
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190:. Because of its criticism of colonialism, the second half of the film was
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The film first premiered in 1953. In 1954 it received the
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Documentary films about
African resistance to colonialism
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The film was commissioned from Marker by the association
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Godard on Godard: Critical
Writings by Jean-Luc Godard
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779:One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich
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346:List of avant-garde films of the 1950s
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222:consumers. A mention is made of how
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521:Oforiatta-Ayim, Nana (May 2011).
370:Milne, Tom (1986). "Commentary".
300:National Center of Cinematography
1073:("Claude Ridder" segment) (1967)
462:Chris Marker, Festival de Pesaro
398:Censorship: A World Encyclopedia
1103:Films directed by Alain Resnais
210:and other traditional art from
1118:French short documentary films
1108:Films directed by Chris Marker
971:Private Fears in Public Places
395:Jones, Derek (December 2001).
374:. Da Capo Press. p. 267.
230:basketball show, of the boxer
202:The film exhibits a series of
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1123:1950s short documentary films
1133:French black-and-white films
1030:Pictura: An Adventure in Art
786:The Case of the Grinning Cat
567:University of Illinois Press
1113:1950s French-language films
987:You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet!
625:"Les statues meurent aussi"
600:Manchester University Press
492:"Les Statues meurent aussi"
194:in France until the 1960s.
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1054:Toute la mémoire du monde
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341:French New Wave#Left Bank
167:Les statues meurent aussi
1033:(Gauguin segment) (1951)
553:Alter, Nora M. (2006).
1098:1953 documentary films
909:Life Is a Bed of Roses
853:Last Year at Marienbad
336:French colonial empire
165:
588:Wilson, Emma (2006).
877:Je t'aime, je t'aime
737:A Grin Without a Cat
228:Harlem Globetrotters
1062:Le Chant du styrène
845:Hiroshima mon amour
563:Champaign, Illinois
305:Nana Oforiatta Ayim
1138:1950s French films
947:Smoking/No Smoking
828:Films directed by
765:The Last Bolshevik
688:Works directed by
602:. pp. 22–23.
270:Présence Africaine
232:Sugar Ray Robinson
224:African currencies
212:Sub-Saharan Africa
96:Présence Africaine
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933:I Want to Go Home
901:My American Uncle
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580:978-0-252-03073-4
242:In her 2006 book
182:about historical
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1070:Far from Vietnam
1038:Statues Also Die
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257:Statues Also Die
252:Statues Also Die
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547:Bibliography
533:. Retrieved
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505:. Retrieved
502:Tiger Global
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451:, p. 60
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309:Chris Marker
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273:in 1950, as
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244:Chris Marker
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129:Running time
106:Release date
99:Tadié Cinéma
56:Jean Négroni
48:Chris Marker
35:Chris Marker
1006:Short films
744:Sans Soleil
723:Le Joli Mai
569:. pp.
523:"Speak Now"
479:Wilson 2006
184:African art
82:Guy Bernard
53:Narrated by
27:Directed by
1093:1953 films
1087:Categories
979:Wild Grass
942:(TV, 1992)
893:Providence
772:Level Five
702:Olympia 52
596:Manchester
535:2011-09-01
507:2011-09-01
449:Alter 2006
434:Alter 2006
422:Alter 2006
352:References
284:the Louvre
282:, and not
263:Production
204:sculptures
133:30 minutes
88:Production
45:Written by
311:in 2005.
90:companies
71:Edited by
16:1953 film
1022:Guernica
1014:Van Gogh
940:Gershwin
885:Stavisky
716:La Jetée
497:AlloCiné
315:See also
238:Analysis
198:Synopsis
146:Language
79:Music by
290:Release
220:Western
138:Country
115: (
1065:(1958)
1057:(1956)
1049:(1956)
1041:(1953)
1025:(1950)
1017:(1948)
998:(2014)
990:(2012)
982:(2009)
974:(2006)
966:(2003)
958:(1997)
950:(1993)
936:(1989)
928:(1986)
920:(1984)
912:(1983)
904:(1980)
896:(1977)
888:(1974)
880:(1968)
872:(1966)
864:(1963)
861:Muriel
856:(1961)
848:(1959)
606:
577:
528:Frieze
405:
378:
192:banned
178:, and
162:French
149:French
141:France
573:–60.
531:(139)
357:Notes
208:masks
925:Mélo
751:A.K.
642:IMDb
604:ISBN
575:ISBN
403:ISBN
376:ISBN
117:1953
113:1953
651:at
640:at
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