- Description:
- DVD - Region 2. viewing copy. 2 videodiscs of 2.
- Notes:
- This collection of Chris Marker films consists of three works that pre-date LA JETEE, the featurette that firmly planted his name as a filmmaker. The set also includes seven shorter films that span each decade of his career thereafter. These remarkable curios reveal much about him, his ideas, and his visuality, as well as his take on the modern world from an artistic point-of-view - from China, Siberia, and Israel in the 1950s to the Pentagon, art collectives, cheshire cats, haikus, and early new media. Released in conjunction with a new piece by writer and curator Chris Darke alongside a seminal piece by Roger Tailleur.
Supplemental materials include: a 32 page booklet on Marker and his films, available at checkout.
Titles
+ Sunday in Peking
- Alternate Title:
- Dimanche à Pékin
- Director:
- Marker, Chris
- Production Co:
- Pavox-Film; Argos-Films
- Running Time:
- Short. 22 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - LPCM 2.0 stereo
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- France
- Year:
- 1956
- Language:
- English and French languages with optional English subtitles
- Genre:
- Travelogue
- Notes:
- A rare, tourist’s-eye glimpse into Maoist China, the first of Chris Marker’s inimitable travelogues is a colorful stroll through the city of Beijing set to the filmmaker’s personal reflections on its people, history, and culture.
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
+ Letter from Siberia
- Alternate Title:
- Lettre de Sibérie
- Director:
- Marker, Chris
- Production Co:
- Pavox-Film; Argos-Films
- Running Time:
- Feature. 62 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - LPCM 2.0 stereo
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- France
- Year:
- 1958
- Language:
- English and French languages with optional English subtitles
- Genre:
- Animation, Travelogue
- Notes:
- This early feature from Chris Marker is a key touchstone in the evolution of his distinctive essayistic style, in which he combines footage shot in the barren reaches of Siberia with his typically idiosyncratic musings. Animated mammoths, a humorous comparison of communist and capitalist values, and even a “commercial” for reindeer all feature in this alternately witty and philosophical travelogue that reveals as much about the history and culture of its subject as it does about the inner workings of its maker’s mind.
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
+ Description of a Struggle
- Alternate Title:
- Description d’un combat
- Director:
- Marker, Chris
- Production Co:
- Wim Van Leer; Haifa; S.O.F.A.C.
- Running Time:
- Feature. 60 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - LPCM 2.0 stereo
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- France
- Year:
- 1960
- Language:
- English and French languages with optional English subtitles
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Notes:
- In Description d’un Combat, Marker’s idiosyncratic style, combining location footage with archival material, builds a complex and personal portrayal. Israel’s demography is explored, from the kibbutzim to the Arab minorities, the orthodox Jews, and the tourists. The “battle” of the title does not refer to the tank-and-artillery variety, but to the inner struggle of Israeli citizens to adapt to a new view of themselves, in a new country.
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
+ Sixth Side of the Pentagon, The
- Alternate Title:
- La Sixième face du Pentagone
- Director:
- Marker, Chris; Reichenbach, François
- Production Co:
- Les Films de la Pléiade
- Running Time:
- Short. 27 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - LPCM 2.0 stereo
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- France
- Year:
- 1968
- Language:
- English and French languages with optional English subtitles
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Notes:
- On October 21, 1967, over 100,000 protestors gathered in Washington, D.C., for the Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam. It was the largest protest gathering yet, and it brought together a wide cross-section of liberals, radicals, hippies, and Yippies. The film shows young men burning their draft cards, Yippies chanting "Out, demons, out!" while trying to levitate the Pentagon, and thousands of protestors rushing the steps of the Pentagon itself and some actually getting into the building. THE SIXTH SIDE OF THE PENTAGON, by contemporaneously putting us in the midst of the action yet combining the experience with a wry and reflective commentary, is a remarkable time capsule and reminder of events from forty years ago, 1967 - the turning point of opposition to a long and unpopular war.
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
+ Embassy, The
- Alternate Title:
- L’Ambassade
- Director:
- Marker, Chris
- Production Co:
- Societe pour le Lancement des Oeuvres Nouvelles (SLON)
- Running Time:
- Short. 20 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - LPCM 2.0 stereo
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- France
- Year:
- 1973
- Language:
- English and French languages with optional English subtitles
- Genre:
- Drama, War
- Notes:
- One of Chris Marker's few fiction films, THE EMBASSY shows political dissidents seeking refuge in a foreign embassy after a military coup d'état in an unidentified country. Over the next few days, more and more people fleeing the military assault-teachers, students, intellectuals, artists, and politicians-arrive at the embassy. An anonymous cameraman records the tense situation with his Super-8 camera and provides a voice-over commentary as the Ambassador and his wife arrange to house and feed the growing group. The refuge-seekers accommodate themselves to the makeshift living arrangements, find ways to pass the time, and engage in often heated political debates.
+ Theory of Sets
- Alternate Title:
- Théorie des ensembles
- Director:
- Marker, Chris
- Running Time:
- Short. 11 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - LPCM 2.0 stereo
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- France
- Year:
- 1973
- Language:
- English and French languages with optional English subtitles
- Genre:
- Animation, Documentary
- Notes:
- Made entirely on Roger Wagner’s HyperStudio software, Chris Marker explores set theory using Noah’s Ark as an example.
+ Three Video Haikus
- Alternate Title:
- Trois Vidéo Haikus
- Director:
- Marker, Chris
- Running Time:
- Short. 3 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - LPCM 2.0 stereo
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- France
- Year:
- 1994
- Language:
- English and French languages with optional English subtitles
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Notes:
- A collection of three short ‘haiku videos’ by Chris Marker. The first haiku, ‘Yanka / Tchaika’, shows the river Seine passing under a bridge. A bird in flight stays motionless in the air. The second haiku, ‘Owl Gets in Your Eyes’, shows Catherine Belkhodja smoking a cigarette while a superimposed shot of an owl in flight fades in and out over her face. The third haiku is a tribute to the Lumière brothers. In an homage to their style, Marker documents an event of daily life in only a minute, choosing to film work on the Petite Centure (a Parisian railway) in May 1994. Due to the work, no train actually passes and we are simply shown desolate train tracks, making the haiku a dry parody of ‘L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat’
+ Blue Helmet
- Alternate Title:
- Casque bleu
- Director:
- Marker, Chris
- Running Time:
- Short. 26 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - LPCM 2.0 stereo
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- France
- Year:
- 1996
- Language:
- English and French languages with optional English subtitles
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Notes:
- For six months in 1994, François Crémieux served as a French UN peacekeeper near the Bosnian town of Bihać. He never saw combat, barely even experienced physical discomfort—but he was left deeply shaken by the experience.
In BLUE HELMET, director Chris Marker keeps the focus squarely on Crémieux, an eloquent young veteran who recounts his experiences rapid-fire, as though he’s been desperate to share them since returning home. The film consists entirely of Crémieux shot in closeup, interspersed with stills from his tour of duty.
+ E-Clip-Se
- Director:
- Marker, Chris
- Production Co:
- Les Films du Jeudi
- Running Time:
- Short. 8 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - LPCM 2.0 stereo
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- France
- Year:
- 1999
- Language:
- English and French languages with optional English subtitles
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Notes:
- During the solar eclipse of August 11, 1999, Chris Marker documents the French public looking up to the skies, many of them wearing eclipse glasses.
+ Case of the Grinning Cat, The
- Alternate Title:
- Chats perchés
- Director:
- Marker, Chris
- Production Co:
- Les Films du Jeudi; ARTE
- Running Time:
- Feature. 59 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - LPCM 2.0 stereo
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- France
- Year:
- 2004
- Language:
- English and French languages with optional English subtitles
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Notes:
- n his newest film, French documentarian and cinema-essayist Chris Marker reflects on French and international politics, art and culture at the start of the new millennium. In November 2001, the filmmaker became intrigued, as did many other Parisians, by the sudden appearance of alluring portraits of grinning yellow cats on buildings, Metro walls and other public surfaces. Marker's cinematic efforts to document the mysterious materializations of this charming feline throughout Paris are a recurring theme of THE CASE OF THE GRINNING CAT.