1959 collaborative feature, hyperreal rather than documentary, part of the cinema of Jean Rouch, though just as much the work of his collaborators.
The footage is of the people, to our knowledge lives neglected by the cinema up to this point, going about their business. The footage is again mixed from various angles, depths, and approaches, some close and some far away, generally quite short. A noticeable feature is the sweat, especially in the darkened rooms.
This feature is noticeable not just for its content, but is really what it is because of the post-narration, how the story is told not only from a distance in place but in time also. This means that it is not just a life we see, but so to speak the expression of a way of life. A narrative is created around the footage that has a wonderful non-military precision. The feeling is gained of not just hovering from above, but the intervention of the subject to present, in a sense fictionalise, their own story means this comes close to presenting a ‘what-its-like’ of the life that we do see.
For this formal coup-de-cinema, it simply takes a step forward in that medium that few have been able to acknowledge, nevermind match or overcome. For all that, it succeeds in showing some beautiful scenarios; the sheer joy of just mucking about, outside of disciplines of time and space. This presents a world, which is an act of creation, so often alien to the cinema, and that is high praise.
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