Chris Marker

Chris Marker

Born: July 29, 1921
Died: July 29, 2012
in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France
Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve, also known as Chris Marker (France: 29 July 1921 - 29 July 2012) was a French writer, poet, activist, internaut, critic, photographer, traveler, journalist, film enssayist, multimedia artist and documentary maker.

He began his work as part of the French Rive gauche group, parallel but different from the nouvelle vague, with which he would later share themes and works. He is credited with creating the subjective documentary and is considered a pioneer of collective cinema in France. His cinematographic work is known for its poetic, sometimes ethereal, and video-art-like expression. He dedicated himself, during sixty years of work, to observing, with meticulous curiosity, with caustic and often amusing irony, even with anger, the vicissitudes of world history and also of the individual (memory, art, wars, politics, culture, nature, etc), all this while experimenting with various methods of image manipulation and montage.

He is also known for the ignorance of his person. For years, hardly anyone knew what Chris Marker looked like, he didn't like being photographed, so there were no photos of him. It amused him to offer contradictory accounts of his life in the few written interviews he gave. The closest you can get to Marker's intimate life is in his film career. Philippe Dubois once said: "Chris Marker is, in a way, the most celebrated of the unknown filmmakers". "Rather than a Man Without Qualities, he is a Man Without Biography," says his official website: chrismarker.org.

He used many pseudonyms too, some are Hayao Yamaneko, Jacopo Berenzini, Kosinki, Michel Krasna, Sandor Krasna, Guillaume-en-Égypte (his avatar) & the best known Chris Marker.

Some of his most important works are La Jetée (1962), Sans Soleil (1983), Far From Vietnam (1967), A Grin Without a Cat (1977), Level Five (1997), A.K. (1985) & One Day In the Life of Andrei Arsenevitch (1999). He also dabbled in CD-ROMs with Immemory (1997), has a website called Gorgomancy, a Youtube channel called Kosinki & created a whole world dedicated to his interests, life and works, called 'Ouvroir', in the virtual world game: Second Life.

Movies for Chris Marker...

Ten Lives of a Cat: A Film about Chris Marker
Title: Ten Lives of a Cat: A Film about Chris Marker
Character: Kaibyō (archive footage)
Released: October 31, 2023
Type: Movie
Ten years after the death of iconic French filmmaker, Chris Marker. A filmmaker, hoping to rediscover that unique sensibility against the uncertainty of the new century, returns to the places synonymous with those incomparable and unforgettable films-- From the cat cemetery of Sans Soleil, to the mausoleum of The Last Bolshevik; The caves of Level Five to the rooftops of The Case of the Grinning Cat. A biographical portrait of one of the 20th century's greatest and most misunderstood filmmakers.
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The Invention of Chris Marker
Title: The Invention of Chris Marker
Character: Self
Released: May 28, 2020
Type: Movie
A desktop documentary about the online afterlife of the late French filmmaker, Chris Marker.
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In Chris Marker's Studio
Title: In Chris Marker's Studio
Character: Self
Released: December 19, 2011
Type: Movie
Two friends (and legendary French New Wave filmmakers) meet in real and virtual worlds.
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Agnès Varda: From Here to There
Title: Agnès Varda: From Here to There
Character: Self
Released: October 1, 2011
Type: Movie
Agnès Varda travels around the world to meet friends, artists and filmmakers for an expansive view of the global contemporary art scene.
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La Traversée du désir
Title: La Traversée du désir
Character: Self
Released: March 16, 2009
Type: Movie
What was your first desire? What did you long for most? Arielle Dombasle put these questions to a wide circle of famous people.
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One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich
Title: One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich
Character: Self (voice) (uncredited)
Released: May 15, 1999
Type: Movie
A documentary about the Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. The film was an episode of the French documentary film series Filmmakers of our time. The title of the film is a play on the title of Solzhenitsyn's novella One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
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Level Five
Title: Level Five
Character: Self (voice) (uncredited)
Released: February 19, 1997
Type: Movie
The French computer programmer Laura inherits the task of making a computer game of the Battle of Okinawa in Japan during World War 2. She searches the Internet for information on the battle, and interviews Japanese experts and witnesses. The extraordinary circumstances of the Battle of Okinawa lead Laura to reflect deeply on her own life and humanity in general, particularly the influence of history and memories.
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Rush - Voyage à Moscou
Title: Rush - Voyage à Moscou
Character: Lui-même
Released: February 3, 1990
Type: Movie
A document of Perestroika, to be viewed as (nearly) unedited rushes of a voyage to Moscow, preserved by compatriot Costa-Gavras. Says Émilie Cauquy of the French Cinémathèque, "Astonishing unpublished travel diary, shot by Chris Marker in analog video on the occasion of a screening of L'Aveu in Moscow in 1990 [...] Armed with his camcorder, Marker films and records the comments, takes on the role of contemporary capital according to this unique ethnographic method that he has perfected".
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Tokyo Days
Title: Tokyo Days
Character: Self (voice) (uncredited)
Released: July 6, 1988
Type: Movie
This idiosyncratic view of Tokyo begins with a live mannequin in a store window and French actress Arielle Dombasle chatting with Marker as they wander around Tokyo. After Dombasle departs, the tape continues with footage from the Tokyo subway and an indoor market. Marker punctuates the tape throughout with playful visual and sound edits.
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A. K.
Title: A. K.
Character: Narrator (voice)
Released: May 20, 1985
Type: Movie
In 1985, Chris Marker traveled to Japan to attend the filming of Ran, directed by Akira Kurosawa. Marker analyzes the progress of filming; the infinite patience of a team under the orders of a meticulous director down to the smallest detail; the antithetical mixture of the modern with the traditional; of the real with the fictitious; of life with cinema… and literature.
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Tokyo-Ga
Title: Tokyo-Ga
Character: Self (uncredited)
Released: April 24, 1985
Type: Movie
German director Wim Wenders made this documentary in which he tries to explore the Tokyo that was depicted in the films of Yasujiro Ozu. When Wenders visits Tokyo for the first time, he finds a very different city, one with a booming fascination with technology that often clashes with the traditional elements of Japanese culture. Wenders also interviews Ozu's cinematographer, Yuharu Atsuta, and Chishu Ryu, an actor who frequently collaborated with Ozu.
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Sans Soleil
Title: Sans Soleil
Character: Self (uncredited)
Released: March 2, 1983
Type: Movie
A woman narrates the thoughts of a world traveler, meditations on time and memory expressed in words and images from places as far-flung as Japan, Guinea-Bissau, Iceland, and San Francisco.
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May Days
Title: May Days
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1978
Type: Movie
Filmmaker William Klein documents the Paris student riots that occurred in May of 1968.
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Kashima Paradise
Title: Kashima Paradise
Character: Narrator (voice)
Released: April 10, 1973
Type: Movie
This 1973 French documentary explores the conflict between modern values and material comforts in Japan and the more traditional obligations (giri) and culture which are still the real backbone of the society. Among the topics touched on are the Osaka Expo, battles against pollution, and Japanese leftist movements.
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The Koumiko Mystery
Title: The Koumiko Mystery
Character: Narrator
Released: October 9, 1965
Type: Movie
While filming the Olympics, a filmmaker encounters a Japanese girl. Manchurian born and French educated, she's an intriguing anomaly. He films her around Tokyo, as she speaks of Japan, being Japanese and her unique perspective on life.
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The Lovely Month of May
Title: The Lovely Month of May
Character: Self / Interviewer (voice)
Released: May 1, 1963
Type: Movie
Candid interviews of ordinary people on the meaning of happiness, an often amorphous and inarticulable notion that evokes more basic and fundamentally egalitarian ideals of self-betterment, prosperity, tolerance, economic opportunity, and freedom.
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Lumière Award to Chris Marker
Title: Lumière Award to Chris Marker
Character: Self
Released: March 3, 1962
Type: Movie
This silent film shows the jury voting for Chris Marker, who receives the Louis Lumière award for his film ¡Cuba sí!