Le joli mai
Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme’s LE JOLI MAI heavily inspired Chai on her first film, A NORMAL LIFE. “You get the sense of the end of a colonial power that’s very deep and very strong,” she says. “LE JOLI MAI is a really interesting examination of how you come to terms with a violent past.”
Chris Marker, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret
- Notes From Chai VasarhelyiOne of Chris Marker’s lesser-known films, it documents the first summer of peace in Paris after the Algerian War. There are these off-the-cuff, person-on-the-street interviews that capture the life of a vibrant, changing city. They speak to the changing society of this era as a whole, foreshadowing all the unrest that’s about to happen in 1968. There’s a sense of awakening and the end of a colonial power. In some ways it’s a cousin to THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS and an examination of how to come to terms with a violent past.
