387 La Jetée and Sans Soleil

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Jun-Dai · #1 Post by **Jun-Dai** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 5:13 pm

One of the most influential, radical science-fiction films ever made and a mind-bending free-form travelogue: La Jetée and Sans Soleil couldn’t seem more different—but they’re the twin pillars of an unparalleled and uncompromising career in cinema. A filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor, and now videographer and digital multimedia artist, Chris Marker has been challenging moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his investigations of time, memory, and the rapid advancement of life on this planet. These two films—a tale of time travel told in still images and a journey to Africa and Japan—remain his best-loved and most widely seen.

La Jetée

Chris Marker, filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor, and now videographer and digital multimedia artist, has been challenging moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his complex queries about time, memory, and the rapid advancement of life on this planet. Marker’s La Jetée is one of the most influential, radical science-fiction films ever made, a tale of time travel told in still images.

Sans Soleil

Chris Marker, filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor, and now videographer and digital multimedia artist, has been challenging moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his complex queries about time, memory, and the rapid advancement of life on this planet. Sans Soleil is his mind-bending free-form travelogue that journeys from Africa to Japan.

GUILLAUME-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

- Restored high-definition digital transfers, approved by director Chris Marker, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
- Two interviews with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin
- Chris on Chris, a video piece on Marker by filmmaker and critic Chris Darke
- Two excerpts from the French television series Court-circuit (le magazine): a look at David Bowie’s music video for the song “Jump They Say,” inspired by La Jetée, and an analysis of Hitchcock’s Vertigo and its influence on Marker
- Junkopia, a six-minute film by Marker, Frank Simone, and John Chapman about the Emeryville Mudflats
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by Marker scholar Catherine Lupton, an interview with Marker, notes on the films and filmmaking by Marker, and more

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toiletduck! · #2 Post by **toiletduck!** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 5:19 pm

I would love (!! -- the two exclamation points kind of love) for Bambi Meets Godzilla to make its way on here from the old La Jetee VHS. I know they have no real bearing on each other, but as with Jun-Dai's English dub, the only way I know the film is with the hi-larious short to follow.

-Toilet Dcuk

souvenir · #3 Post by **souvenir** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 5:45 pm

Film Forum recently showed The Case of the Grinning Cat, but it appears to be a First Run/Icarus Films property and they want a whopping $390(!) for the DVD right now so I suppose that's unlikely. It looks interesting nonetheless.

backstreetsbackalright · #4 Post by **backstreetsbackalright** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 6:08 pm

I'd anticipate that we'll see both the French and English audio tracks for both films. Marker isn't a huge subtitles proponent, and anyway, the French disc has both audio tracks, if memory serves.

In a perfect universe, we'd get commentary on both films, ideally from Marker himself, but a critic commentary would of course be welcome too. (But god help us, please don't let Terry Gilliam record one.) Although, certainly there's a very good case to be made that Sans Soleil doesn't need any kind of additional commentary. Also, there's actually a fair amount of excellent writing on both films, and these maybe aren't the kind of films that would be aided by criticism running along with the films. A couple interviews would be nice - with critics, other directors (Varda, in particular), and maybe even Marker himself. A Marker interview maybe isn't too likely, but I anticipate something new from him contributed for the liner notes. And the liner notes, I hope, will be quite beefy (at least as large as the Rashoman or A nos amours booklets), and perhaps include some of the aforementioned excellent writing on Marker's work.

Other films that'd be great to add on (if we're dealing in ideals here) would be Letter from Siberia, The Koumiko Mystery, or Le Joli Mai (those three having elements in common with Sans Soleil). The Embassy isn't too terribly distant from La Jetee. And there are many quite short films that could probably be tacked on without expanding the set too much.

Some of Marker's best work - including The Last Bolshevik, A Grin Without a Cat, and Remembrance of Things to Come - are already available from First Run/Icarus Films, and so presumably out-of-bounds.

And some easter eggs are in order! I expect cats and owls tucked away in nooks and crannies. Maybe even a clip of Castro tweaking a microphone or two.

A lot of exciting possibilities but, bottom line, nice prints of Sans Soleil and La Jetee with English and French audio tracks would make for my Top DVD Of 2007 without another contender for miles.

BWilson · #5 Post by **BWilson** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 6:35 pm

I would hope that if Criterion releases anymore Tarkovsky we would get Marker's tribute film: A Day in the Life of Andrei (Une journée d'Andrei Arsenevitch) from Cinéma, de notre temps

Tribe · #6 Post by **Tribe** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 6:39 pm

Are these two films ones that need lots of context to be appreciated? Or do they hold up well enough standing alone?

Tribe

backstreetsbackalright · #7 Post by **backstreetsbackalright** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 6:45 pm

Certainly they stand up nicely on their own. But a good commentary could enrich the experience, offering some further info on Marker and his work, as well as talking about Sans Soleil's place in first-person intimate filmmaking, and talking about the fine line between documentary and (science) fiction it walks.

As far as who might be a good candidate for a commentary track, lemme get back to you on that....

magicmarker · #8 Post by **magicmarker** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 6:59 pm

As far as scholars providing commentary on Marker, the two that initially come to mind are Catherine Lupton, whose book Chris Marker: Memories of the Future is an excellent and thorough overview of Marker and his work, and Raymond Bellour, who has written quite a bit and quite compellingly on Marker (in French, mind you...).

Bruce Kawin also has an interesting article on La Jetee in Film Quarterly from 1982 or so. And there is a new book by Nora M. Alter, called Chris Marker, part of the University of Illinois Press Contemporary Film Directors Series, that is a worthwhile introduction to Marker.

There is not a huge body of scholarship on Marker in English, certainly in comparison to that in French or even German, so besides Lupton I can't think of anyone who would qualify as a Marker "expert."

Jun-Dai · #9 Post by **Jun-Dai** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 6:59 pm

I doubt I could sit through Sans Soleil again, but La Jetée definitely without any special contextualizing. It's a very attractive and riveting film, and it's just about the perfect length. Sometimes I wish the 20-60 minute timeframe were a more commonly accepted film length.

Being a short film, I definitely think people would be much more willing to sit through more than one commentary for La Jetée than they would for most films. Are there any commentators that would make a whole lot of sense other than Marker? I guess what I'm asking is: who are the Marker specialists?

Hmm, if there are better scholars in France or elsewhere, I wonder if Criterion would consider doing a French commentary with subtitles. It would certainly be a shame if they missed out on having a really good scholarly commentary because of the language barrier. Of course, translating the commentary would add a noticeable bump to the cost of producing the disc.

miless · #10 Post by **miless** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 8:10 pm

Jun-Dai wrote:I, for one, would like the English dub to be available as an extra. After all, even if the French soundtrack is better, I've only ever known both films with English soundtracks, as I imagine is true for most of us in the U.S.

I remember seeing somewhere that (supposedly) Marker's preferred version was the one with English narration (I won't call it a dub, as it is not dubbed) over the French and German versions.

sevenarts · #11 Post by **sevenarts** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:27 am

Considering that Sans Soleil is probably my favorite film, I'm very excited for this, and I'll probably be replacing my (already pretty good) UK disc provided that Criterion does this right. But I have to say I hope Criterion goes all-out in providing extra Marker materials -- especially as many short films as they can get their hands on. There needs to be lots more Marker available on DVD. That'd be the best special feature they could add, as far as I'm concerned.

Both French and English audio tracks are a must, of course, and on Sans Soleil at least I actually prefer the English dub, since the film's so complex and multilayered as it is that it's a lot more enjoyable experience without adding subtitles to the mix. Could care less about commentaries. The films really stand very well on their own, although they're certainly fertile territory for all kinds of analysis and discussion that could fill up a book. I'd love to see a film-centric package just loaded with tons of Marker viewing previously unavailable on DVD, in addition to the two main features.

#12 Post by **Matt** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:52 pm

A good choice for commentator/interview might be Bill Horrigan of the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State. He's not exactly internationally famous, but he and Marker have been good friends for years and he has written often on his work. He also has a lovely soft voice that's very nice to listen to. Here's a link to a profile of him (PDF).

#13 Post by **zedz** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:25 pm

I'm sort of at a loss to think what could go alongside La Jetee - it's such a singular, perfectly formed work. So making this the headliner of a collection of Marker's short works would be great. His great collaboration with Borowczyk, Les Astronautes, is already available, but should be more widely seen.

Sans soleil, being so much denser and more referential, could stand a lot more contextualising. I'd love to see a video footnote / glossary feature that tracks some of the film's references and motifs through Marker's other works.

feckless boy · #14 Post by **feckless boy** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:45 am

backstreetsbackalright wrote:I'd anticipate that we'll see both the French and English audio tracks for both films. Marker isn't a huge subtitles proponent, and anyway, the French disc has both audio tracks, if memory serves.

Seems strange since the opening quotations are different, the French version has Jean Racine's Bajazet and the English T.S.Eliot's Ash-Wednesday.

unclehulot · #15 Post by **unclehulot** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 2:34 pm

I suppose one could do custom subs for the French version (my preference) with tools available if Criterion continues Marker's marked preference for the 2 different versions without subtitles.

Mental Mike · #16 Post by **Mental Mike** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:29 pm

I rented Sans Soleil a while back but I really could not get the point of this free-form doc. I think F for Fake is a fine film (also free-form) but for the life of me I do not know why people rank Sans Soleil as the best movie of the past 25 years (in several magazines). The Vertigo section was interesting, though, so I will pick this title up for that sequence...

...is this a film about the 'unity' of consciousness across cultures? How people from different ends of the earth 'think' alike despite cultural boundaries? That is what I think I took from it since I saw it...anybody have any ideas, or comments?

sevenarts · #17 Post by **sevenarts** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 3:15 am

Mental Mike wrote:...is this a film about the 'unity' of consciousness across cultures? How people from different ends of the earth 'think' alike despite cultural boundaries? That is what I think I took from it since I saw it...anybody have any ideas, or comments?

Forget the last 25 years, it's probably my favorite film ever. I'd hazard a guess that one problem you're having with it is trying to take away any single overarching theme from the film, since I think its true purpose and its true beauty is much more amorphous and poetic than any one idea from the film could capture. And yes, I'd say one current within the film is of ideas about consciousness across culture, although it's not so much that the film posits that we all "think alike" so much as Marker is emphasizing our common humanity across cultural differences. The film is simultaneously focusing on idiosyncratic cultural rituals and the aspects that make each culture unique, while drawing oblique parallels between them that tie these disparate cultures together as the human race.

But there's a lot more to the film as well, and this probably isn't even a main theme so much as a subtext present throughout the film. In a way, Sans Soleil has as many different themes and ideas condensed within it as there are scenes in the film. The (in)ability of the image to document reality, the power of ritual, and, perhaps most importantly, extended meditations on memory in many contexts, and especially the importance of memory for defining history. The brilliant Vertigo segment is crucial for developing this latter theme, but also the tale of the African revolution and its aftermath, and the story about the time-travelling explorer whose perfect memory deadens him to sensation.

I've seen this film many, many times now, and I couldn't possibly sum it up in any easy way. Marker has deliberately made a film that defies such sound-bite summary, especially as relates to the norms of documentary filmmaking, where a film usually has a single clear purpose or a single idea that it aims to communicate. Marker rejects that in favor of something much more complex. The ideas and themes running throughout the film become clearer the more times you watch. Different segments develop ideas that later echo back in unforseen ways, and it's very easy to miss a lot of this on first viewing considering the film's overwhelming complexity. I'm sure I'm still quite a few viewings from being very close to complete understanding with this masterpiece, but it was clear to me even from the first time that I was encountering something very special. So I'd say, definitely give it another shot or two, and when you do, don't go looking for any overall meaning to take away with you. The power of the film, rather, is in all the smaller fragments of meaning packed into each individual scene, and the larger meanings formed by making connections between these scenes.

Harvey Domino · #18 Post by **Harvey Domino** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:43 am

I put Sans Soleil next to similarly styled (and obviously derivative) piffle like Tarnation, or even well-intentioned but dishonest efforts like Notre Music's opening sequence, and Sans Soleil is hands down the greatest film of its kind ever made.

I think the film is, like most of marker's work (and most of Resnais') about perception more than anything else...

sevenarts · #19 Post by **sevenarts** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 1:52 pm

I'm guessing those special features are preliminary, since that certainly doesn't sound like much material for a double disc set. I still hope some other shorts show up as extras.

Eric · #20 Post by **Eric** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:02 pm

Yeah, in a month thick with stuff I'm pretty sure I'll buy, I don't know if I can justify double-dipping on this if that's all they're offering in the way of new material.

Nihonophile · #21 Post by **Nihonophile** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:29 pm

sevenarts wrote:I'm guessing those special features are preliminary, since that certainly doesn't sound like much material for a double disc set. I still hope some other shorts show up as extras.

Unless maybe this Chris on Chris interview runs over 2 hours. ( similar cases were Ugetsu, Tokyo Story)

sevenarts · #22 Post by **sevenarts** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:32 pm

Nihonophile wrote:
sevenarts wrote:I'm guessing those special features are preliminary, since that certainly doesn't sound like much material for a double disc set. I still hope some other shorts show up as extras.
Unless maybe this Chris on Chris interview runs over 2 hours. ( similar cases were Ugetsu, Tokyo Story)

No, it's only 10 minutes long, it's on the UK DVD as well (and as I remember, wasn't anything special). I'm sure they'll be adding more extras, it's just puzzling why they're not announced right up front.

exte · #23 Post by **exte** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:33 pm

kinjitsu wrote:La Jetée and Sans soleil

Wow. I guess I should've sold my dvd when it was worth $80+...

Jean-Luc Garbo · #24 Post by **Jean-Luc Garbo** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:46 pm

Thank you, Criterion! =D> =D> =D> (And the cover art looks great!)

criterionsnob · #25 Post by **criterionsnob** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:58 pm

They must be including both English and French versions, but it only says French with English subtitles at the moment. Isn't the English voice-over Marker's preferred version?

Edit: Actually, further down on the Criterion site it says:

"Sandor Krasna's letters are read by Alexandra Stewart in the English version and Florence Delay in the French version."