Chris Marker's digital experiments could be hits and miss for me at times especially his youtube videos but Level Five his first full length venture into the cyber cinematic art is undoubtedly my favourite. Unlike his 1983 influential documentary diary Sans Soleil which although I highly appreciate and respected but didn't particularly clicked with I find this film utterly captivating with its narrative essay telling simultaneously two different yet undeniably profounding linked stories, its impressive and stunning how much Marker could see and most importantly felt how the internet and technology would be so chained into everyday life and it's old tradition, standards, history and morality 30 years back and especially the feeling and vibe it gives off is so mysterious and impenetrable yet so appropriate and unbelievably felt, that's one of the few things that makes Level Five feel not just fresh and incredibly modern but in someway beyond it. Chris Marker paints the digital aura here and the asthethic and how he blends games, death, images, future, past, virtual and realities makes for a absorbing experience with that a marvelously delightful yet pessimistic main performance from Catherine Belkhodja and you have one of Marker's best films and like all of them it's incredibly hard to defined, is it sci fi? Is it documentary? Is it essay? Is it fiction? No one can answer but everyone could certainly feel the magic on display in Level Five. If anyone deserves the title of the first internet filmmaker, Chris Marker is it. I absolutely love this piece.
