A film I really wanted to like, given the acclaim and the positive opinion of so many people I respect, but one that fell short for me. The concept was unique and I wish I could say it was praiseworthy, but it too often felt voyeuristic and culturally condescending, and that was a real turn-off. The narration didn't add anything, and at times got so banal and pseudo-intellectual that I felt like I might enjoy the film more with the volume off. "Perhaps they read only in the street, or perhaps they just pretend to read-these yellow men," Marker (through his narrator) says. About video games, there's this: "Perhaps because he (Pac-Man) is the most perfect graphic metaphor of man's fate." Good grief. It was like being trapped in a room with someone showing a really long home movie and droning on as the footage veered randomly from place to place. I would have loved to hear the voices of and viewpoints of the people he filmed, or something that gave me real insight into their cultures. Also, I have no idea why Marker felt a need to show the gruesome (and extended) killing of a giraffe, but he did.

This is a film pondering time and place. The narrator is retelling a travelogue written by a world traveler. He traveled and commented on life in various places from Japan to Cape Verde to Guinea-Bissau. Trying to comprehend the ideas coming from the narration may be a fool's errant but it does flow with a hypnotic rhythm. One does wonder if the stories being told are real or made up but it almost doesn't matter. The commentary on these foreign lands come with a grain of salt. The images themselves are interesting. They are sometimes banal everyday life. Sometimes they are fascinating bits of a different culture. This is more than a simple travel vacation video but I couldn't really explain what it all means. Even as a simple home video, this is still entrancing. One starts to fall into the movie. I'm not sure what to take away from this other than the awesome knowable unknowable foreignness of the world.

If you look through the reviews here on IMDb for this film, you'll find quite a few that praise it and you'll find a bunch that thoroughly hated it. You can place me in the latter group. This same thing could be said about the director's short film "Le Jetee"- -folks think it's brilliant and artsy or folks think it's crap. I'll tell you what I saw and you can make your own decision--this way at least you cannot say I didn't warn you.

The film plays like a travelogue done by someone with a severe head injury. You see lots of lengthy and seemingly random footage from around the world (with an emphasis on Japan) and a narrator drones on and on about nothing in particular. As for the footage, despite being in color it's rather grainy and generally uninteresting. It's also accompanied by electronic music that generally is annoying and I think it was honestly meant to be annoying. And, this goes one for over 100 minutes.

I'll be honest. I stopped watching this one after a while--and that's saying a lot considering I almost never bail on a film. Additionally, I've probably reviewed at least a couple thousand films and rarely have I felt like I wasted my time more than with this one.