Le Fond De L’Air Est Rouge

Comprehensive two-part documentary (‘Les Mains Fragiles’ and Les Mains Coupees, themselves split into two parts) chronicling 1967-1977, using footage put together by Chris Marker in 1977.
This documentary is pretty straightly done; it is reportage, footage, analysis to an extent. Quickly moves between stories and milleus. Constant comment on the action by Marker and a variety of other voices.
Generally a focus on objects, on things; books and marching, on actions rather than dwelling on people. Sometimes look more at a microphone than a talker. This does well to avoid turning it into a romantic story; keeps a nice distance.
Apart from the Vietnam section, does not try to produce shocking images, rather leaves us with a well rounded picture of its particular milieu.
Stays very close to the (broadly) communist activities of these years, focussing (often quite tightly) on the mechanics of the French movement, which means there isn’t much of a wider analysis, but one can’t do everything. The second half offers perhaps a more critical approach, with analysis of internal splits, than the cataloguing of tenuously linked events in the first.
There are a few moments when Marker’s aesthetic sensibilities shine through; the Chinese ballet, for example.
This documentary has more to do with how one reacts to the content; whatever it turns out as for the viewer, it is a comprehensive document of what it looks at, conjuring up a world that could be otherwise forgotten. This world can only be so shown with a strong presence at the centre; this is the maker himself. An assuredly made, thorough history.