《雕像也會死亡》(Les statues meurent aussi,阿蘭·雷乃、克里斯·馬爾凱,1953年出品,27分鐘)尖銳地批評了西方殖民主義對非洲傳統藝術的戕害以及自稱熱愛非洲藝術的上等階層的貪婪與偽善。本片的主角是來自黑非洲的人物雕像、面具和其他非洲藝術品,但是它們的演出場所并非黑人的故鄉,而是白人的歐洲,藝術品市場和藝術品拍賣會是它們頻頻出沒和滯留的中轉地。這些本來被非洲部族用來抵抗死亡的面具和雕像,如今卻呆在博物館的櫥窗里靜靜地死去。此時,畫外音告訴我們:“當人死去的時候,他便進入了歷史;當這些雕像死去的時候,它們進入了藝術;這種關于死亡的學問,我們最后稱之為文化。”由于本片具有鮮明而強烈的社會批判意識,自拍竣之日起即遭到法國政府禁映,直到1963年才解禁。本片由長于剪輯的阿蘭·雷乃操刀剪輯,由強于寫作的克里斯·馬爾凱撰寫解說,充分發揮了兩人各自的強項,可謂強強合作的結晶。
This collaborative film, banned for more than a decade by French censors as an attack on French colonialism (and now available only in shortened form), is a deeply felt study of African art and the decline it underwent as a result of its contact with Western civilization. Marker's characteristically witty and thoughtful commentary is combined with images of a stark formal beauty in this passionate outcry against the fate of an art that was once integral to communal life but became debased as it fell victim to the demands of another culture.