Chris Marker : Early Film Writings / Chris Marker ; edited by Steven Ungar ; translated by Sally Shafto.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Marker, Chris, 1921-2012, author.

Contributor:

Ungar, Steven, editor.

Shafto, Sally, translator.

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Marker, Chris, 1921-2012--Criticism and interpretation.

Marker, Chris.

Motion pictures--History.

Motion pictures.

France.

Genre:

Critiques cinematographiques.

Film criticism.

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (272 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis, MN : University of Minnesota Press, [2024]

Summary:

Formative writings by French avant-garde filmmaker Chris Marker It is hard to imagine French cinema without La Jetée (1962), the time-travel short feature by the reclusive French filmmaker Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve, better known as Chris Marker. He not only influenced artists ranging from David Bowie to J. G. Ballard but also inspired the cult film 12 Monkeys. Marker's influence expanded beyond his own films through his writings for the French monthly Esprit as well as anthologies and newly founded film publications. This first English translation of Marker's early writings on film brings together reviews and essays, published between 1948 and 1955, that span the topics of film style, adaptation, and ideology, as well as animation and the debates surrounding 3-D and wide-screen technologies, ranging from late silent-era films to postwar Hollywood's efforts to contend with the rise of television. Readers will find commentary on Laurence Olivier's 1944 screen adaptation of Henry V, a scathing review of Robert Montgomery's Lady in the Lake (1947), critiques of Walt Disney productions, a discussion of the pitfalls of prioritizing commercial success over aesthetic values, and more. An indispensable resource for cinephiles and scholars alike, these texts document the emergence of Marker's critical voice and situate him alongside such contemporaries as André Bazin and Eric Rohmer, as well as the future French New Wave figures Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. They show how his remarks on individual films open onto his engagement with films as social and cultural phenomena.

Contents:

Editor's Introduction: Writing, Film, and the Marker Moment

Note from the Translator

Henry V's White Horse

The Imperfect of the Subjective

Corneille at the Movies

One Hundred Masterpieces of Film

Orpheus

Siegfried and the Gaolers, or German Cinema Enchained

The Aesthetics of Animated Film

Gerald McBoing-Boing

An Ornamental Form

The Passion of Joan of ARC

Letter from Mexico City

Letter from Hollywood: On Three Dimensions and a Fourth

Cinerama

The French Avant-Garde

An Auteur's Film

Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) Cinema, Art of the Twenty-first Century?

Farewell to German Cinema?

Hollywood on Location

Animation Film: UPA

On the Waterfront

Translator's Notes

Selected Sources and Filmography.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-178), filmography and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4529-7167-6

OCLC:

1452597514