Level Five (2014)

Sadly Over-hyped

Fantastic!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Decidedly Chris Marker is not one my favourite film directors. His movies are formally attractive in terms of images and words but they have lttle to do with reality. They are too philosopical and poetical to be true. This time a computer programmer woman is trying to make a computer game based on the battle of Okinawa in 1944. Her efforts of reaching the real events and their consequences by investigating data on internet lead her to a permanent meditation and discourse about the battle facts in paralell with events of her life and her feelings. It is attractive in terms of film form but not much in terms of contents that is rather irrealist.

Here is another film from Chris Marker about memory, this time the memory of a nation (Japan), the computer age (the Internet, called OWL in the film - Optional World Link) and relationships. It is about how humankind does not deal honestly with the past, which in turn forces us to be haunted by it forever. The only way out is honesty, confession and forgiving oneself, something Japanese have not been able to do.The heart of the film is the battle of Okinawa where the inhabitants committed mass suicide. Parents would kill their children, then the husbands their wives and then finally themselves, all out of "love". There is an interview with a man who killed his brothers and sisters and his mother. This story (which is true) is so shocking, horrifying and heart wrecking that one wonders why it is not as well known as the concentration camps in Europe. This is a very poetic film. I often wanted to stop the film just to write down the beautiful and thought provoking monologues. Another masterpiece from Chris Marker!

If you like your Sci-fi shiny and new then Level 5 will dissapoint - It's computer graphics are executed with a charming clunkiness that affords the story a sturdy grounding in reality.Many will find the film 'hard going', but it's rare that you will find a film with a sub-plot as potent as the one here, and it's an informative and enriching experience.Marker has, yet again, made a stunningly intimate and challenging film.

In a way it's ironic to comment on this film through this medium as one of its themes seems to be the ephemerality of electronic communication. I say "seems" because this is an often wilfully obscure film in the tradition of Marker's oeuvre. It ostensibly concerns a woman seeking information about the WWII massacre at Okinawa through a futuristic antecursor of the Internet, but who only finds repetitive images and foggy recollections. It seems to be a meditation on the replacement of ideas by images, and possibly a comment on we still ignore tragedy in our world even this information-saturated age. Though intensely cerebral, it's directed stylishly and has moments of genuine poignance, and references to classic French cinema which film buffs will enjoy spotting