Chris Marker facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chris Marker
Born	Christian Hippolyte François Georges Bouche-Villeneuve (1921-07-29)29 July 1921 Neuilly-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, France
Died	29 July 2012(2012-07-29) (aged 91) Paris, France
Occupation	Film director, photographer, journalist, multimedia artist

Chris Marker (born Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve; 29 July 1921 – 29 July 2012) was a famous French writer, photographer, and film director. He made many documentary films and unique "film essays." These are like written essays but told through moving pictures and sounds.

Some of his most well-known films are La Jetée (1962), A Grin Without a Cat (1977), and Sans Soleil (1983). Chris Marker was part of a group of filmmakers called the Left Bank group. They were connected to the French New Wave film movement in the late 1950s and 1960s. Other famous directors in this group included Alain Resnais and Agnès Varda.

His friend, Alain Resnais, once called him "the prototype of the twenty-first-century man." This means he was ahead of his time. A film expert named Roy Armes said Marker was special because he was the only true "essayist" in French cinema.

Early Life and Adventures

Chris Marker was born Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve. He was very private about his life and rarely gave interviews or allowed photos of himself. His exact birthplace is a bit of a mystery. Some sources say he was born in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, while others say Belleville, Paris, or Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Marker himself sometimes said he was born in Mongolia. When asked why he was so secretive, he simply said, "My films are enough for them [the audience]."

Before World War II, Marker studied philosophy in France. During the war, when Germany occupied France, he joined the Maquis. This was a group that was part of the French Resistance, fighting against the occupation. After the war, he became a journalist. He wrote for a magazine called Esprit, where he wrote about politics, poems, stories, and film reviews.

During this time, Marker started traveling the world as a journalist and photographer. He continued this throughout his life. He worked as an editor for a French publishing company, creating a series of books called Petite Planète ("Small World"). Each book focused on a different country, with information and photos. In 1949, he published his first novel, Le Coeur net, which was about flying.

Starting His Film Journey (1950–1961)

As a journalist, Chris Marker became more and more interested in making films. In the early 1950s, he began experimenting with photography. He met and became friends with many filmmakers from the Left Bank Film Movement. This group included Alain Resnais and Agnès Varda. They were known for their creative and experimental filmmaking.

In 1952, Marker made his first film, Olympia 52. It was a documentary about the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. In 1953, he worked with Alain Resnais on a documentary called Statues Also Die. This film looked at traditional African art and how it was affected by Western colonialism. It won an award but was banned by French censors because it criticized French colonialism.

After helping with Resnais's film Night and Fog in 1955, Marker made Sunday in Peking. This was a short "film essay." Marker filmed it in China and added his own thoughts and comments over the scenes. This style became his trademark.

Marker continued to develop his unique style with the documentary Letter from Siberia (1957). This film was like a letter from Marker about Siberia. It showed Siberia moving into the 20th century and some old tribal traditions. Marker used different kinds of footage, including old newsreels and cartoons. He even showed the same short scene three times with different comments to make a point about how stories can be told in different ways.

In 1959, Marker made an animated film called Les Astronautes with Walerian Borowczyk. It mixed drawings with still photos. In 1960, he made Description d'un combat, a documentary about Israel. It won an award at the Berlin Film Festival.

In 1961, Marker traveled to Cuba and made ¡Cuba Sí!. This film supported Fidel Castro. It was later banned because it criticized the United States.

La Jetée and Le Joli Mai (1962–1966)

Chris Marker became famous around the world for his short film La Jetée (The Pier) in 1962. This film is very special because it tells a science fiction story using mostly still photographs. It's about a survivor of a future nuclear war who travels back in time. He is obsessed with memories of a pier, a mysterious woman, and a man's death. He later finds out the man's death was his own. The film uses very little talking, mostly just sound effects and a narrator.

While making La Jetée, Marker was also working on a longer documentary called Le joli mai, released in 1963. For this film, Marker and his camera operator interviewed many different people on the streets of Paris. They asked about their personal lives and important social and political issues of the time. Marker then put these interviews together with his own comments, spoken by famous actors like Yves Montand. The film explored different lives and ideas in Paris.

After another documentary in 1965, Marker made Si j'avais quatre dromadaires. This film was also a photomontage, using over 800 photos Marker had taken in 26 countries. The film's comments were like a conversation between a photographer and two friends discussing the pictures.

Filmmaking for Change (1967–1974)

In 1967, Marker helped organize a film called Loin du Vietnam. This film was a protest against the Vietnam War. Many famous directors, including Jean-Luc Godard and Alain Resnais, contributed parts to it.

From this group of filmmakers, Marker created a collective called S.L.O.N. (which means "Society for launching new works" and also "elephant" in Russian). SLON's goal was to make films and encourage workers to create their own films. Marker was often credited as the director or co-director of SLON's films.

After the big protests in France in May 1968, Marker felt he should focus on making films that helped society. SLON's first film was about a factory strike in France. They also made films about anti-war protests and the sugar crop in Cuba. In 1974, SLON changed its name to I.S.K.R.A. (which means "spark" in Russian and was also the name of a political newspaper).

Back to Personal Films (1974–1986)

In 1974, Marker started making personal films again. He made a documentary about his friend, singer Yves Montand, called La Solitude du chanteur de fond. It showed Montand's concert to help Chilean refugees.

Marker then worked on a big film about Chile called La Spirale, released in 1975. This film told the story of events in Chile, from the election of President Salvador Allende in 1970 to his murder and the military takeover in 1973.

He then began one of his most important films, A Grin Without a Cat, released in 1977. The title refers to the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. It compares the hope of the global socialist movement before 1968 (the grin) with its actual presence after 1968 (the cat). The film was a big look at political movements since 1968. It explored hopes and disappointments.

In the late 1970s, Marker traveled a lot, including a long stay in Japan. This inspired his next film, Sans Soleil, released in 1982.

Sans Soleil is a very unique film. It mixes documentary footage with fictional parts and deep thoughts, creating a dream-like feeling. Its main themes are Japan, Africa, memory, and travel. The film's narration is like letters from a cameraman, read by a woman. It won several awards.

In 1984, Marker was asked to film the making of Akira Kurosawa's movie Ran. From this, Marker made A.K., released in 1985. This film focused more on Kurosawa's personality than on how the movie was made.

In 1986, Marker made a documentary called Mémoires pour Simone as a tribute to his friend and neighbor, Simone Signoret, who had passed away.

Digital Art and Later Years (1987–2012)

After Sans Soleil, Chris Marker became very interested in digital technology. He worked on a computer program that could have conversations. He also created an interactive multimedia CD-ROM called Immemory in 1998.

His interest in digital art also led to his film Level Five (1996) and a multimedia piece for the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2005.

Marker lived in Paris and rarely gave interviews. When asked for a picture of himself, he often gave a photo of a cat instead! His own cat was named Guillaume-en-égypte. In 2009, Marker even had a cartoon avatar of his cat created to represent him in online videos.

In a 2007 essay, Marker shared that he shot most of Sans Soleil with a silent film camera and recorded audio with a simple cassette recorder. He also mentioned that only one short scene in La Jetée had moving images because he could only borrow a movie camera for one afternoon.

From 2007 to 2011, Marker worked with art dealer Peter Blum on many projects. These included photo series like PASSENGERS and Staring Back, and digital prints of movie posters. His works were shown in galleries and museums around the world.

Chris Marker passed away on 29 July 2012, which was his 91st birthday.

Legacy

Chris Marker's film La Jetée has inspired many other filmmakers. For example, it influenced Terry Gilliam's movie 12 Monkeys (1995) and parts of Mamoru Oshii's film Avalon (2001).

Works

Filmography

• Olympia 52 (1952)
• Statues Also Die (1953 with Alain Resnais)
• Sunday in Peking (1956)
• Lettre de Sibérie (1957)
• Les Astronautes (1959 with Walerian Borowczyk)
• Description d'un combat (1960)
• ¡Cuba Sí! (1961)
• La jetée (1962)
• Le joli mai (1963, 2006 re-cut)
• Le Mystère Koumiko (1965)
• Si j'avais quatre dromadaires (1966)
• Loin du Vietnam (1967)
• Rhodiacéta (1967)
• La Sixième face du pentagone (1968 with Reichenbach)
• Cinétracts (1968)
• À bientôt, j'espère (1968 with Marret)
• On vous parle du Brésil: Tortures (1969)
• Jour de tournage (1969)
• Classe de lutte (1969)
• On vous parle de Paris: Maspero, les mots ont un sens (1970)
• On vous parle du Brésil: Carlos Marighela (1970)
• La Bataille des dix millions (1971)
• Le Train en marche (1971)
• On vous parle de Prague: le deuxième procès d'Artur London (1971)
• Vive la baleine (1972)
• L'Ambassade (1973)
• On vous parle du Chili: ce que disait Allende (1973 with Miguel Littín)
• Puisqu'on vous dit que c'est possible (1974)
• La Solitude du chanteur de fond (1974)
• La Spirale (1975)
• A Grin Without a Cat (1977)
• Quand le siècle a pris formes (1978)
• Junkopia (1981)
• Sans Soleil (1983)
• 2084 (1984)
• From Chris to Christo (1985)
• Matta (1985)
• A.K. (1985)
• Eclats (1986)
• Mémoires pour Simone (1986)
• Tokyo Days (1988)
• Spectre (1988)
• The Owl's Legacy (L'héritage de la chouette) (1989)
• Bestiaire (three short video haiku) (1990)
  • Bestiaire 1. Chat écoutant la musique
  • Bestiaire 2. An owl is An owl is an owl
  • Bestiaire 3. Zoo Piece
• Getting away with it (1990)
• Berlin 1990 (1990)
• Détour Ceausescu (1991)
• Théorie des ensembles (1991)
• Coin fenêtre (1992)
• Azulmoon (1992)
• Le Tombeau d'Alexandre a.k.a. The Last Bolshevik (1992)
• Le 20 heurs dans les camps (1993)
• Prime Time in the Camps (1993)
• SLON Tango (1993)
• Bullfight in Okinawa (1994)
• Eclipse (1994)
• Haiku (1994)
  • Haiku 1. Petite Ceinture
  • Haiku 2. Chaika
  • Haiku 3. Owl Gets in Your Eyes
• Casque bleu (1995)
• Silent Movie (1995)
• Level Five (1997)
• One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich (2000)
• Un maire au Kosovo (2000)
• Le facteur sonne toujours cheval (2001)
• Avril inquiet (2001)
• Le souvenir d'un avenir (with Bellon 2003)
• Un maire au Kosovo (2000)
• Chats Perchés (2004) – a documentary about M. Chat street art
• Leila Attacks (2006)
• Stopover in Dubai (2011)

Film collaborations

• Nuit et Brouillard (Resnais 1955)
• Toute la mémoire du monde (Resnais 1956)
• Les hommes de la baleine (Ruspoli 1956)
• Broadway by Light (Klein 1957)
• Le mystere de l'atelier quinze (Resnais et Heinrich 1957)
• Le Siècle a soif (Vogel 1958)
• La Mer et les jours (Vogel et Kaminker 1958)
• L'Amérique insolite (Reichenbach 1958)
• Django Reinhardt (Paviot 1959)
• Jouer à Paris (Varlin 1962)
• A Valparaiso (Ivens 1963)
• Les Chemins de la fortune (Kassovitz 1964)
• La Douceur du village (Reichenbach 1964)
• La Brûlure de mille soleils (Kast 1964)
• Le volcan interdit (Tazieff 1966)
• Europort-Rotterdam (Ivens 1966)
• On vous parle de Flins (Devart 1970)
• L'Afrique express (Tessier et Lang 1970)
• Kashima Paradise (Le Masson et Deswarte 1974)
• La Batalla de Chile (Guzman, 1975–1976)
• One Sister and Many Brothers (Makavejev 1994)

Photographic Series

• Koreans (1957, printed in 2009)
• Crush Art (2003–08)
• "Quelle heure est-elle?" (2004–08)
• PASSENGERS (2008–10)
• Staring Back (varying years)

Digital Prints

• Breathless (1995, printed 2009)
• Hiroshima Mon Amour (1995, printed 2009)
• Owl People (1995, printed 2009)
• Rin Tin Tin (1995, printed 2009)

Photogravures

• After Dürer (2005–07, printed in 2009)

Video Installations

• Silent Movie (1995)
• Owls at Noon Prelude: The Hollow Men (2005)

Images for kids

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  Chris Marker

• Guillaume En-Egypte.png

  Avatar of Guillaume-en-Egypte

See also

In Spanish: Chris Marker para niños