Consoling

Drifting around urban Japan in his 1983 film Sans Soleil, Chris Marker paused to contemplate the video game Pac-Man, manufactured by the Japanese company Namco, then ubiquitous in arcades. ‘Video games’, he tells us, ‘are the first stage in a plan for machines to help the human race, the only plan that offers a future for intelligence’. But for the time being, as capitalism stands unthreatened, ‘the philosophy of our time is contained in Pac-Man’. Marker concludes that this tiny abstracted mouth, constantly chased by hungry ghosts which he can chase in turn but only for seconds at a time, ‘is the most perfect graphic metaphor of man’s fate. He puts into true perspective the balance of power between the individual and the environment.’ Death is inevitable; everyone is out to get you; triumph over your enemies is fleeting but sweet while it lasts.