歌手的孤独

In 1974, Marker made La solitude du chanteur de fond, which follows Yves Montand as heprepares a benefit concert for Chilean refugees. That Montand had not performed live in manyyears made his participation in this concert all the more significant. The portrait of Montandis intercut with footage from films in which he starred, including Costa Gavras's Z (1969) andL'Aveu (1970), both filmed in Chile with the support of Allende. Montand reflects on the roleof politics in culture and on the nature of political films, themes of considerable interestto Marker. In addition, the film includes footage smuggled out of Chile that tracks the finaldays of the democratically elected government of Allende before the coup of September 11, 1973.Chris Marker, Nora M. Alter, 2006A finely crafted film by the unique film-poet, Chris Marker, The Loneliness Of the Long-Distance Singeraims to convey two aspects of the actor/singer Yves Montand: his political conviction and his artisticintegrity. In February 1974, Montand agreed to prepare in one week a performance of some of his best-knownsongs for the benefit of the Chilean refugees after Allende’s overthrow. In this remarkable film, wesee the anxious tension, the moments of relaxation, everything which went into his polished appearanceon the stage at the Olympia in Paris. The skillful cuts back and forth between the final performanceand the rehearsals the week before allow us to see how carefully the show is put together by Montand.He tests every gesture, goes over and over every rhythm change. His accompanist and friend, Bob Castella,emerges as a warm, appealing personality, who in one excellent scene must stand up to Montand’s explosiveanger when there is a discrepancy between the music and the words. As we continue to be entertained byMontand’s virtuoso singing, we are led by Chris Marker into a deeper understanding of the man. Montandtalks about politics, about women; we get film clips from some of his best roles (La Guerre Est Finie,Z, The Confession, and so on). In the end, we understand Montand when he says: “I sing today so that wedon’t forget the blood of yesterday.