{"id":9864,"date":"2015-06-03T20:00:45","date_gmt":"2015-06-04T01:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/?p=9864"},"modified":"2015-05-31T22:13:28","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T03:13:28","slug":"chris-marker-shorts-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/archives\/9864","title":{"rendered":"Chris Marker shorts 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watched a couple new Marker-related shorts,
\nand rewatched some older ones in shiny new copies.<\/p>\n

–
\nSunday in Peking<\/a><\/em> (1956)<\/strong> in lovely high definition<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

–
\nLetter from Siberia<\/a><\/em> (1957)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Forgot how amazing this one is.
\nSongs and animation and opera, owl-led advertisements and imaginary newsreels.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“Since you can never tell how a bear will react to a camera, we were offered the protection of an armed policeman. But since we’re much more frightened of policemen than we are of bears, we politely declined.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Irkutsk Dam, “sitting on its own reflection like a station in outer space”:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

–
\nLe Chant du Styrene<\/a><\/em> (1958, Alain Resnais)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mostly shots of the factory, with few humans.
\nForgot about the rhyming voiceover.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

–
\nBroadway By Light<\/em> (1958, William Klein)<\/strong><\/p>\n

From Marker’s intro: “Each evening, in the centre of New York, an artificial day rises. Its purpose is to announce spectacles, sell products, and the producers of these adverts would be amazed to know that the most fascinating spectacle, the most precious product made by them, is the very street transformed by their signs.” Klein shoots the lights of Broadway, scored by cartoon-jazz music that matches the editing and light movement. Wonderful, would like to put this and some Joris Ivens and Bert Haanstra shorts on an infinite loop in my office. Klein’s first film (I only knew his Mr. Freedom<\/a><\/em> before), edited by Alain Resnais.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

–
\nA Valparaiso<\/a><\/em> (1963, Joris Ivens)<\/strong> from the 2008 restoration<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

–
\nJunkopia<\/a><\/em> (1981)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Uses the sort of electronically-processed sound he’d be featuring in his next full-length film, Sans Soleil<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

–
\nEclipse<\/em> (1999)<\/strong><\/p>\n

On a day when everyone is looking at a solar eclipse through special glasses, Marker watches the watchers instead. First half has live sound at a hippo sculpture park, then he switches to slow motion and electronic music and goes elsewhere (the zoo? there are owls).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

–
\nDescription of a Memory<\/em> (2007, Dan Geva)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn’t rewatch my terrible-quality copy of Marker’s Description of a Struggle<\/a><\/em>, but instead tried this doc, the second<\/a> feature-length film I’ve seen this year made in response to a Chris Marker-related film. Geva shows the Marker film and stills to locals, asks about the people who appeared in the original. Reminds me of Marker’s friend Agnes Varda, her periodic returns to previous films through documentaries<\/a> and shorts and DVD extras. Geva is investigating images and memories a la Marker and Varda, turning out a worthy follow-up to the original feature.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Of the happy kid riding a cart down a hilly street: “British policeman bashed his head with an iron rod. Gone a bit mad since.<\/p>\n

“Noah Rosenfeld, who fulfilled his dream to become a chess champion.”<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

–
\nMore Marker:
\nFar From Vietnam<\/em> is out in HD. The Confession<\/em> is also out, and includes the Arthur London short. M\u00e9moires pour Simone<\/em> still lacks subtitles, as do most of the 1969-1970 shorts. Oh, and it looks like new copies of Description of a Struggle<\/em> and Blue Helmet<\/em> just came out – will save those for another day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Watched a couple new Marker-related shorts, and rewatched some older ones in shiny new copies. – Sunday in Peking (1956) in lovely high definition – Letter from Siberia (1957) Forgot how amazing this one is. Songs and animation and opera, owl-led advertisements and imaginary newsreels. “Since you can never tell how a bear will react […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10,308,200,7,121,361,21,349,326],"class_list":["post-9864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie","tag-alain-resnais","tag-chile","tag-china","tag-chris-marker","tag-israel","tag-new-york","tag-shorts","tag-siberia","tag-william-klein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9864"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9952,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9864\/revisions\/9952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}