Given the amount of “reality” television on the air these days, I suppose most of us are a bit numb to it all. Few will argue that the line between reality and fiction has blurred considerably. Even a few reality show producers have admitted that they shoot things to make them seem more dramatic, edit out the boring parts, or even have these ‘real’ people do something to create tension for dramatic effect. However, even in the earliest days of the cinema vérité movement, when people weren’t necessarily concerned about getting their fifteen minutes of fame, critics and audiences alike wondered if people could really be truthful with a camera in their faces.

A landmark in cinema vérité, 1961’s Chronicle of a Summer, a collaboration between anthropologist/filmmaker Jean Rouch and sociologist/film critic Edgar Morin, finds them on the streets of Paris “in a search for truth.” Parisians from the student to the elderly, run the gamut of answers to “Are you happy!” Though the initial man-on-the-street interviews offer little to no significant insight, the later interviewees who make up the bulk of the film, provide some interesting revelations.

Chronicle of SummerThe filmmakers treat their subjects with the utmost respect. Among them are Marilou, an Italian émigré working as a secretary at Cahiers du Cinéma; a factory worker named Angelo; a French student named Jean-Pierre; an African student named Landry; a painter and his wife, Henri and Maddie; and Marceline, a pollster who helps out with some of the interviewing. As it turns out, Marceline picked Jean-Pierre as an interview subject because he is a former boyfriend. Her complex feelings about their failed relationship are one of the central discussions of the film.

As one might expect, it is the interviewees who appear to reveal their innermost feelings that capture viewer attention. Marilou is struggling to escape the fantasy world she’s built for herself; a world that threatens to destroy her. Marceline reveals a traumatic past in a concentration camp and the tragic loss of her father at Auschwitz. In a memorable sequence, Marceline must explain her past when African student Landry doesn’t understand the number tattoo on her arm.

Rouch and Morin bring many of their interviewees together to discuss the ongoing Algerian War. With the draft ever present, it’s understandably at the forefront of most of the younger men’s minds. Though Landry, an Algerian is present, there isn’t much debate since they all agree that the French are in the wrong and should pull out after six years of fighting.

The most interesting part of Chronicle of a Summer may also be the most jarring: as the lights come up in a movie theater, the film’s participants have just watched everything we’ve seen up to now. The participants then argue among themselves as to whether the responses elicited from them were real or acted. Rouch didn’t necessarily abide by the “what you see is what you get” philosophy. Not afraid to appear on camera himself, he wasn’t afraid to ask questions provoke his subjects and maybe even edit where he saw fit.

While it’s impossible to determine what parts of Chronicle of a Summer might be real or fake, there’s no question that the filmmakers made viewers think about how people act in front of camera. In today’s world, full of “reality” based programming the question of what’s real and what’s fake has never been more prevalent and the line so blurred.

Presented in the 1.37:1 aspect ratio and shot largely in 16mm, Criterion’s 1080p transfer is unsurprisingly erratic when it comes to sharpness and definition. Thankfully, most of the age related artifacts you might expect to find on a film that’s more than fifty years old have been removed (there is a hair or two in a couple of places). The grayscale features acceptable black levels, though the white levels do bloom on occasion. The white subtitles are easy to read.

The LPCM French sound mix on this disc is impressive. Chronicle of a Summer is all about dialogue, and there’s no way its man-on-the-street interview material could sound much better than this. While the track is by no means complex, it appropriately captures the emotion and flavor of what’s being said and done by the interview subjects.

English SDH subtitles are included.

The following special features are available:

  • Un été + 50: (HD, 1:14:55) The best special feature on the disc, this 2011 compilation film directed by Florence Dauman brings together recent interviews with director Edgar Morin and film participants Marceline, Jean-Pierre, and Jean along with extended outtakes from the movie which contain more of the in-depth discussion.
  • Interview with Co-director Jean Rouch: (HD, 5:41) Recorded in 1962 on French television, Rouch discusses how Chronicle of a Summer represented a departure from his other films.
  • Interview with Marceline Loridan: (HD, 7:20) Filmed for French television in 1961 after the film won the International Critics Prize at Cannes. She describes her time in a concentration camp, meeting Edgar Morin and how she came to participate in the film.
  • Interview with Anthropology Professor Faye Ginsburg: (HD, 14:10) In this newly recorded interview, Ginsburg offers a critique of the film and discusses some of Rouch’s other work.
  • Booklet: The 37-page booklet contains the chapter listing, a cast and crew list, black and white stills from the movie, and a lengthy critical essay on the film by professor Sam Di Iorio.