With Marker\u2019s blend of fiction and documentaries, explorations of time and space, and effective invention of the film essay form, his work has continued to inspire since his passing in 2012.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Born in 1921, Chris Marker was a reclusive figure whose life itself \u201ctoyed with fact and fiction.\u201d Unlike his more outgoing counterparts like Agn\u00e8s Varda and Jean Luc Godard, Marker famously sent images of his cat in place of his own portrait and refused interviews. Chris Marker itself is a pseudonym; his real name is Christian Bouche-Villeneuve. Despite his own retreat from society, his films remained deeply connected to politics and people.<\/p>\n
This retrospective celebrates the recent centennial of the filmmaker, writer, journalist, photographer, philosopher, and lover of cats. In a century marked by war and revolution, Marker\u2019s first cinema experience was working on Alan Resnais\u2019s documentary about Nazi concentration camps, Night and Fog<\/em> (1956). In the 1950s and 1960s, his work was marked by the essay form, as he traveled to China, Siberia, and Cuba. In 1962, his now-iconic sci-fi short\u00a0La Jet\u00e9e\u2014<\/em>which he made while filming the sprawling documentary about contemporary French society, The Lovely Month of May\u2014<\/em>garnered international attention. During this decade, Marker was deeply influenced by the anti-Vietnam War movement and the revolutionary spirit of May 1968. He took a break from his auteur-driven career, and began working with the activist documentary collective SLON. He returned to his personal work in the 1970s and 1980s, and became interested in digital technology in the 1990s and 2000s.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A prolific filmmaker whose style and medium were constantly fluctuating, Marker may have disliked the idea of a retrospective, as he persistently resisted the spotlight and linearity. But his films, full of formal innovations, philosophical depth, and curiosity, continue to engage the masses. This series highlights some of Marker\u2019s beloved works, as an invitation to always choose the path less traveled.<\/p>\n The Lovely Month of May\u00a0\u00a0 A monumental documentary, here Chris Marker takes to the streets to question everyday French citizens about the state of their world and society at large. The cast of characters\u2013over a thousand\u2013range in social class and age, and even include an owl (a recurring figure in Marker\u2019s oeuvre). Filmed during France\u2019s first period of peace in decades, the film is an important and iconoclastic look at French society.\u00a0<\/p>\n DIRECTED BY: Chris Marker, Pierre Lhomme. CAST: Yves Montand, Simone Signoret (voice). 1963. 145 min. France. B&W. English. DCP.\u00a0<\/p>\n La Jet\u00e9e\u00a0 La Jet\u00e9e<\/em> is one of the most influential sci-films, perhaps best known for having inspired Terry Gilliam\u2019s 12 Monkeys;\u00a0<\/em>Marker\u2019s film was itself inspired by Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s Vertigo<\/em>.\u00a0La Jet\u00e9e<\/em> comprises still photographs and traces an ultimately circular time travel experiment in a post-apocalyptic Paris. It plays here with Marker\u2019s first documentary, co-directed with Alain Resnais and Ghislain Cloquet, Statues Also Die<\/em>, which was banned in France for its critique of France\u2019s colonial history.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n La Jet\u00e9e<\/em>\u00a0 Statues Also Die\u00a0<\/em> Be Seeing You\u00a0\u00a0 Just before the cataclysmic May 1968 events, Marker with Mario Marret, as part of the SLON collective, went to Besan\u00e7on where textile workers were poised to strike. They captured the fractured process but also the ultimate sense of solidarity. When workers who collaborated with the collective on Be Seeing You<\/em> were unhappy with the results, the filmmakers returned to make Class of Struggle<\/em>. Under the name The Medvedkin Group, their aim was to teach workers to make their own movies. Together, these films are some of the most important politically engaged cinema.\u00a0<\/p>\n Be Seeing You\u00a0<\/em> Class of Struggle\u00a0<\/em> A Grin Without a Cat\u00a0\u00a0 A Grin Without a Cat<\/em>\u00a0is Marker\u2019s epic exploration of a period he called the \u201cThird World War\u201d: 1967 to 1977 (after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Marker reworked the film). Divided into two parts, Marker explores, in a distinct personal essay-meets-found footage-meets-agitprop style, the Vietnam War, Che Guevara\u2019s death, May 1968, and upheavals in Prague and Chile. Through collage and commentary,\u00a0A Grin Without a Cat<\/em>\u00a0resists definitive closure on a remarkable\u2014and traumatic\u2014decade.<\/p>\n DIRECTOR: Chris Marker. 1977. 180 min. France. Color. English. 35mm.<\/p>\n Sans Soleil\u00a0\u00a0 An unmissable classic, Marker\u2019s iconic film is a breed of travelogue that invites the viewer not just to far-flung locales, but into the very nature of images themselves. Letters from Marker\u2019s stand-in, the fictitious Sandor Krasna, are narrated by a woman as a m\u00e9lange of footage\u2014some shot by Marker, some stock footage\u2014unspools. Capturing daily life and rituals alike in Japan and Guinea-Bissau, the documentary unpacks the nature and inherent limitations of human memory.\u00a0<\/p>\n DIRECTED BY: Chris Marker. CAST: Alexandra Stewart (voice). 1983. 100 min. France. Color. English. 35mm.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Case of the Grinning Cat\u00a0\u00a0 When graffiti of an orange grinning cat appears in Paris, Marker goes searching for this mysterious mascot. His often-playful quest leads him to the streets, m\u00e9tro, and even the annals of art history. But Marker\u2019s searching also intersects with the political climate following the events of September 11 and the rise of the right in France. This plays with \u201cChris Marker\u2019s Bestiary,\u201d a collection of short films focused on one of Marker\u2019s favorite subjects: animals. Cats, owls, elephants, and bulls are the focus not of an anthropomorphic gaze but a quiet, curious one.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Case of the Grinning Cat<\/em>\u00a0 Cat Listening to Music\u00a0<\/em> An Owl Is an Owl Is an Owl\u00a0<\/em> Zoo Piece\u00a0<\/em> Bullfight in Okinawa\u00a0<\/em> Slon Tango\u00a0<\/em> The Last Bolshevik\u00a0\u00a0 After making films as part of a collective in the 1960s named for Russian director Aleksandr Medvedkin, Marker made a documentary on its namesake. The film is both a tribute to Medvedkin (who was a committed Bolshevik) and a journey into film history. It also serves as a history of Russia and its current place in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n DIRECTED BY: Chris Marker. 1992. 100 min. France. Color. French. Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\nFeatured Screenings:\u00a0<\/h2>\n
\nSunday, May 1 | 2pm\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nThursday, May 5 | 7:30pm\u00a0\u00a0
\nWith Statues Also Die\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nDIRECTED BY: Chris Marker. CAST: H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Ch\u00e2telain, Davos Hanich, Jacques Ledoux, Jean N\u00e9groni (voice). 1962. 27 min. France. B&W. English. DCP.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nDIRECTED BY: Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, Ghislain Cloquet. CAST: Jean N\u00e9groni (voice). 1953. 30 min. France. B&W. French. 35mm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nThursday, May 12 | 7:30pm\u00a0
\nwith Class of Struggle\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nDIRECTED BY: Chris Marker, Mario Marret. 1968. 39 min. France. B&W. French. Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nDIRECTED BY: The Medvedkin Group. 1969. 37 min. France. B&W. French. Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nSunday, May 15 | 2pm\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nThursday, May 19 | 7:30pm<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nSunday, May 22 | 2pm\u00a0
\nWith Chris Marker\u2019s Bestiary: Five Short Films about Animals\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nDIRECTED BY: Chris Marker. 2004. 58 min. France. Color. French\/English. Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nDIRECTED BY: Chris Marker. 1994. 3 min. France. Color. Silent. Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nDIRECTED BY: Chris Marker. 1990. 3 min. France. Color. English. Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nDIRECTED BY: Chris Marker. 1990. 3 min. France. Color. Silent. Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nDIRECTED BY: Chris Marker. 1994. 4 min. France. Color. Japanese. Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nDIRECTED BY: Chris Marker. 1993. 4 min. France. Color. Silent. Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nWednesday, May 25 | 7:30pm\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n