Chris Marker (Contemporary Film Directors) [Paperback]

Nora M. Alter (Author)

Book Description

Series: Contemporary Film Directors | Publication Date: July 11, 2006

Having spearheaded the bourgeoning Nouvelle Vague scene in the late 1950s and developed a distinctive style involving still images, Chris Marker (born Christian Francois Bouche-Villeneuve) stands among the most influential filmmakers of the postwar era, yet remains enigmatic. His notorious reclusiveness has led to surprisingly few studies, and Nora M. Alter's "Chris Marker" presents the first English-language study of the director. Marker's 1953 debut "filmic essay", "The Statues Also Die" (with Alain Resnais) exposed the European art market's complicity in the former Belgian Congo atrocities, and provided a bold model for other politically committed filmmakers. Thus began Marker's long struggle against global injustice, a trajectory that included his involvement with "Night and Fog", "La Jetee", "Le Joli Mai", "Far from Vietnam", "Le fond du l'air est Rouge", and "Prime Time in the Camps". Alter's careful study includes interviews with the director and investigates the core themes and motivations behind an often unpredictable and transnational area that defies easy classification.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Critically acclaimed and hugely influential but seldom screened, Chris Marker emerged simultaneously with the French New Wave (Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, etc.) but viewed the possibilities of cinema more expansively. Alter sorts Marker's profuse output into three categories: nonfiction works characterized as "filmed essays"; political works, such as Grin without a Cat, which relates the rise and fall of the New Left; and formally innovative art films, such as La Jetee, which consists almost entirely of a series of still images and is Marker's most famous work. Alter's book is invaluable for its biographical information on the reclusive Marker alone, and his insightful exegesis of the director's sprawling career--Marker has also produced art installations, a CD-ROM, poetry, comic strips, and a blog--makes a strong case for the filmmaker's singular importance. A half-dozen brief interviews supplement the text.

Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Nora Alter's short study of Marker's work does much to restore a sense of the complexity of his motivations and working methods ... She is especially informative on the aesthetic and political involutions of post-war France... for its filmography adn the breadth of its coverage, her book is essential."--Brian Dillon, Sight and Sound, January 2007

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press; 1 edition (July 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252073169
• ISBN-13: 978-0252073168
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,649,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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