CINESTIA
ExploreFavoritesRadar
Sign in
ExploreFavoritesRadar
Home/Explore/Catalog/The Owl's Legacy
All Titles
The Owl's Legacy
Soundtrack
Google
Radar
Get notified when it hits streaming, rent, or buy below your target price.
Related titles
Bitter Rivals: Iran and Saudi Arabia
Bitter Rivals: Iran and Saudi Arabia
Crazy Borders
Crazy Borders
?
Dvojí život jedné strany
DEADLOCK
DEADLOCK
Moncloa: Cuatro estaciones
Moncloa: Cuatro estaciones
COLLECTION · Series · 1989

The Owl's Legacy

L'Héritage de la chouette

A 13-part documentary series by Chris Marker examining how ancient Greek ideas continue to shape modern Western thought. Each episode centers on a single Greek word—such as “democracy,” “philosophy,” or “mythology”—through conversations filmed in cities around the world. Combining symposium-style discussions with archival footage and visual motifs of the owl, Marker creates an expansive reflection on the enduring legacy of Greece.

Source: TMDB
* 9.0 (5)DocumentaryFrance
Soundtrack
Google
Directors
Chris Marker
Creators
Chris Marker
Countries
France
Studios
La Sept · Attica Art Productions · FIT Production · La Sept Cinéma
Runtime
26 min/ep
Release
12/06/1989
Score
9.0 / 10 (5)
Where to watch
Buy
Amazon VideoAmazon Video
Seasons and episodes
Miniseries
Miniseries
13 episodes · 1989
Episode 1. Symposium, or the Received Ideas
1989-06-12 · 26 min

In Paris, Tbilisi, Athens and Berkeley historians have played with reconstitutions of the "symposium" - the Greek banquet - around tables laden with food and wine.

Episode 2. Olympics, or the Imaginary Greece
1989-06-13 · 26 min

Greece's inheritance was recomposed in contemporary mythology. This sometimes led to terrible misappropriations for the benefit of totalitarian ideologies - of which Nazism was born.

Episode 3. Democracy, or the City of Dreams
1989-06-14 · 26 min

What exactly does the word mean “democracy” mean? Does it designates the ancient city-state or our contemporary political systems? What are the analogies or, on the contrary, the radical differences between realities separated by more…

Episode 4. Nostalgia, or the Impossible Return
1989-06-15 · 26 min

Ithaca is the iconic distant home that no one should forget: such would be the universal lesson of Homer's Odyssey.

Episode 5. Amnesia, or the Sense of History
1989-06-16 · 26 min

Built on the testimony or "autopsy" - which literally means "seeing oneself" - our conception of History has deeply shifted since Herodotus.

Episode 6. Mathematics, or the Realm of Signs
1989-06-19 · 26 min

The geometrical space and the mathematical language constitute a universal legacy the Greeks have bequeathed us with. How do we articulate its perfect logic to the complexity of contemporary sciences?

Episode 7. Logomachy, or the Root of Words
1989-06-20 · 26 min

All the meanings of "logos" originated from a small territory between Ephesus and Patmos. According to Aristotle the human animal fights with a specific weapon: speech... Logos' destiny would it be the "logomachy"? The fight over words.

Episode 8. Music, or the Inner Space
1989-06-21 · 26 min

A cross between imitation and creation, the search for the beautiful and harmonious animates the artists' personal quests - including with cutting-edge technology - as well as it serves great collective schemes - religions in particular.

Episode 9. Cosmogony, or the Use of the World
1989-06-22 · 26 min

This reflection over creation - divine cosmogony and man's creativity - takes us from the Greek statuary art to the Acropolis' Korai on show in Tokyo. This takes us on towards the Gorgon - a mirror of death.

Episode 10. Mythology, or the Truth of Lies
1989-06-23 · 26 min

There are a set of myths to which we constantly refer ourselves. We will question their genesis, their place in psyche, their transmission, their nature.

Episode 11. Misogyny, or Desire's Traps
1989-06-26 · 26 min

The Greek conception of sexuality was very different from ours. What did the Greek think of desire in a world where heterosexuality and homosexuality - far from being opposites - were models of existence that were different but compatible?

Episode 12. Tragedy, or the Illusion of Death
1989-06-27 · 26 min

The great figures borne out of Greek tragedies help us fathom the founding mechanisms of human practices - all the way to a society like Japan, that is so apparently far from ours.

Episode 13. Philosophy, or the Owl's Triumph
1989-06-28 · 26 min

Around the metaphorical - but also very real - figure of the owl; entwined reflections upon the place of thought in daily existence and public action - sometimes with and sometimes against the Greek legacy.

Cast by season
André Dussollier
André Dussollier
Narrator (voice)
Comments

Sign in to comment and discuss this title.

Carregando
Keywords
philosophypolitics
Related links
Explore catalog
Cinestia publishes lists, reviews, a collection and soundtracks for movie and series discovery.