The Case of the Grinning Cat

The superb works of French documentarian Chris Marker (La Jetée) have been notoriously hard to find in the U.S., but independent supplier Icarus is now filling the void with a quartet of late-period Marker gems, including the cinephile’s delight The Last Bolshevik. The most recent of the releases is this short but idea-packed 2004 video essay, pondering the question of whether today’s youth is apolitical. The jumping-off point for Marker’s musings is a Keith Haring-like graffiti artist called “Monsieur Chat,” whose Cheshire cat drawings were appropriated by French leftist groups. Marker’s tangents about politics and pop culture are as interesting as his central topic, a true sign that the reclusive filmmaker (now 87) is as vital an artist as ever.

Shelf Talk: Marker’s sci-fi short La Jetée has a hardcore cult status, so he is familiar to film students and foreign-film enthusiasts. His documentaries deserve a push to those partial to the works of Robert Greenwald, Michael Moore and other contemporary firebrands.