One of my favorite directors passed away today. Chris Marker was a brilliant, one-of-a-kind filmmaker.
He's the kind of artist that changes the way you look at a medium and its possibilities. Seeing La jetée (1962) for the first time stunned me. This is dialogue-less film with a voice-over and told in mostly photographic images, with just one sequence of actual "film" where the photographs are in sequence. And that scene works as a climax, in a sort of historical retelling of cinema itself - the still coming to life, dreams taking shape with real-world action. Just for that one short film, loosely categorized as science fiction, would I owe this man a great deal of my love for and appreciate of cinema.
Yet he was also responsible for some of the most beautiful documentary features I've ever seen. Sans Soleil, for example, is breathtaking in its imagery and groundbreaking in its social commentary.
My goals in these upcoming weeks is to catch up on my Chris Marker films, both re-watching old favorites and getting my first viewings of his many, many films. If you have any interest in film, I suggest you do the same.
I hope to write something longer in the future, but for now I'd like to simply join in the voices of admiration for Chris Marker.