La jetée
FRANCE / 1962 / French / B&W / 35mm / 28 min
Director, Photography: Chris Marker
Cast: Hélène Chatelain, Davos Hanich, Jacques Ledoux, Ligia Borowczyk, William Klein, Janine Klein
Editing: Jean Ravel
Music: Trevor Duncan
Narration: Jean Négroni
Production Company: Argos Films
Source: Tamasa Distribution
After Paris is destroyed in the Third World War, those who survived must live in an underground world. In order for humanity to survive, those in power must acquire supplies through timeslips into the past. They select our main character, who retains strong memories of the past, as their test subject. This story is told entirely through still photographs, and remains an important work in the history of cinema.
Le joli mai
FRANCE / 1962 / French / B&W / 35mm (Original: 16mm) / 165 min
Directors: Chris Marker, Pierre Lhomme
Photography: Etienne Becker, Denys Clerval, Pierre Villemain
Sound: Antoine Bonfanti, René Levert
Music: Michel Legrand
Narration: Yves Montand
Production Company: Sofracima
Source: La Sofra
May 1962, Paris immediately after the end of the Algerian War. Through interviews with people from various social classes, Marker and Pierre Lhomme clearly portray aspects of Parisian society at the beginning of the 60s. Often compared to Jean Rouch’s Chronicle of a Summer, this Marker’s work of “cine ma vérité,” cinema that expresses a personal take on truth.
The Kumiko Mystery
Le mystère Koumiko
FRANCE / 1965 / French / Color / 35mm (Original: 16mm) / 54 min
Director, Photography, Editing: Chris Marker
Cast: Muraoka Kumiko
Music: Takemitsu Toru
Assistants: Shibata Hayao, Yamada Koichi, Michel Mesnil, Christine Lecouvette
Production Companies: APEC, Sofracima, Service de la recherche ORTF
Source: La Sofra, Cinematrix
Marker visits to Japan in 1964, the year of the Tokyo Olympics. There he meets a beautiful Japanese woman named Kumiko by chance and makes her the subject of this film, recording the cityscape of Tokyo that envelopes her. This monumental film marks the beginning of Marker’s deep relationship with Japan.
If I Had Four Camels
Si j’avais quatre dromadaires
FRANCE / 1966 / French / B&W / Video (Original: 35mm) / 49 min
Director, Photography, Editing: Chris Marker
Sound: Antoine Bonfanti
Music: Lalan, Barney Wilen Trio
Narration: Pierre Vaneck, Catherine Le Couey, Nicolas Yumatov
Producers: Henri Regnier, Claude Joudioux
Source: ISKRA
Taking its title from a passage in the poetry of Guillaume Apollinaire, this film consists of photographs taken by Marker in 26 countries from 1955 to 1965. The film is narrated by an amateur photographer and his friends, who comment together on the photographs, showing the images from many angles.