The Lovely Month of May

1963

145 mins

Directed by Chris Marker, Pierre Lhomme
94%
92%
Documentary
Award Winner

A portrait of Paris and Parisians, shot during May 1962 just after the close of the Algerian War. Documentarians Chris Marker... More

A portrait of Paris and Parisians, shot during May 1962 just after the close of the Algerian War. Documentarians Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme shot 55 hours of interviews with random, everyday people on the street of Paris - artists, students, housewives, businessmen and lovers...

"Paris is pictured by Marker and his team, close to the pavement and the people's faces. In this first month of peace for seven years, the Algerian war just ended with the Evian agreement, what are the Parisians doing, what are they thinking? War and politics? Everyone is avoiding the matters, the interviewer is surprised: why the French, who usually loves to discuss, are so muted?" (Cannes Film Festival)

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The Lovely Month of May | Ratings & Reviews

94_%16 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
92_%286 reviews
Audience score rating

"Pettiness, common sense, posturing, guile, generosity, wit and meanness all come floating out to give a neat look at human foibles."

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Variety

"It's never fully uninflected like authentic vérité, but the material gets at a kind of truth: the chatty anxieties of shopkeepers, passersby, mothers and sons, all grappling with the changing world of May 1962."

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Time Out

"Set out to make a social document, a record and an examination of where his fellow Parisians' heads were. But more than what they thought, Le Joli Mai is interested in how they thought."

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