Bala On Mar er IN A NEW, NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED TRANSLATION, LEGENDARY FILM CRITIC ANDRE BAZIN HERALDS THE CINEMA OF THE FUTURE. Chris Marker, as you may wrote the narration for Bibliotheque Nationale (Toute la mémoire du monde) and Statues Also Die (which the public still has only been able to see in a ver- sion cut to half its length by the censorship board). These incisive, powerful texts, in which cutting irony plays hide and seek with poetry, would be enough to sec their author a privileged place in the field of short filmmaking, currently the iveli- est fringe ofthe French cinema, As the writer ofthe narrations for these films hy his friend Resnais, with wh a marvelous unde mhe shares thris Marker has already profoundly altered the visual relationship between text and image. But his ambition was obviously even more radical, and it became necessary for him to make his own films. First there was Sunday in Peking, which justly won a prize at the 1956 Festival of Tours, and now. at last, there is the extraordinary Letter from Siberia. Admirable as Sunday in Peking was, it ihtly disappointing, in that the was also s 44 FILMCOMMENT ‘TRANSLATED RY DAV restrictions of the short fommat soem ina equate for such a big subject. And it also has to be said that the images, while often very beautiful, did not supply suf- ficient documentary material in the end. Itleft us wanting more, But the seed of the dialectic between word and image that Marker would go on to sow in Letter from Siberia was already there. In the new film, it grows to the dimensions appropriate toa feature film, and takes the weight “A Documentary Point of How to describe Letter from Siberia? Negatively, at first, in pointing out that it resembles absolutely nothing that we have everseen before in films with a doc- tumentary basis —films with ject.” But then it becon say what itis, Flatly and objectively, it is a film report from a Frencl the rare privilege of traveling freely in Siberia, covering several thousand kilo- meters. Although in the last three years wwe have seen several film reports from French travelers in Russia, Letter from sub- necessary to KEHR, COPYRIGHT: CAHIERS DU CINEMA, A Siberia resembles none of them. So, we must take a closer look. I would propose the following approximate deseription: at- ter from Siberia is an essay on the real- in the form ofa filmed report, Or, perhaps, to borrow ean Vigo’ formulation of A propos de Nice (“a documentary point of view”), [would say, an essay documented by film. The important word is “essay.” understood in the same sere that it has in literature — an essay at once historical and political, written by a poet as well Generally, even in politically engaged documentaries or those with a specific point to make, the image (which isto ay the uniquely cinematic element) effec tively constitutes the primary material of the film. The orientation of the work is expressed through the choices made by the filmmaker in the mon- tage, with the commentary compl. ing the organization of the sense thus conferred on the document. With Marker it works quite differently. 1 would say that the primary material is intelligence, that its immediate means of expression is language, and that the image only intervenes inthe third position, in reference to this verbal intelligence. ‘The usual process is reversed. I ill risk another metaphor: Chris Marker brings to his films an absolutely new notion of montage th I will call “horizontal, traditional montage that plays with the sense of duration through the re tionship of shot to shot. Here, a given image doesn't refer to the one that pre~ ceded it or th but rather it ref to what is said ity of Siberia past and presen as opposed to one that will follow, laterally, in some way. From the Ear to the Eye Better, it might be said that the hasic clement is the beauty of what is said and heard, that intelligence flows from the \dio element to the visual. The mon- tage has been forged from ear to eye Because of space limitations, I will describe only a single example, whichis also the film's most successful moment, Marker presents us with a Jocumentary image that is at once full tral: a street in Irkutsk. We see a bus ind workers repairing the ofthe shot a fellow with a somewhat strange face (or atleast, litle blessed by nature) who happens to pass in front of the camera Marke banal images from two opposed poin of view: first, that of the Communist party Hi of which the unknown pedestrian becomes “a picturesque representative of the north country, then in that of the reactionary pe spective, in which he becomes “a trou- bling Asiatic.” This single, thought-proveking antithe- sis isa brilliant stroke of inspiration in then comments on these rather line, in the I ind itself, but its wit remains rather facile Its then thatthe author offers a third com ‘mentary, impartia that objectively describes the unhappy Mongol as “a cross-eyed Yakout.” And this time we are way beyond cleverness and irony, because what Marker has just demonstrate is that and minutely detailed, pjectvity is even more false than the two opposed parti- san points of view; that, at least in rela tion to certain realities, impartiality isan illusion. The operation we have observed is thus precisely dialectic, consisting of placing the same image in three dif nt intellectual contexts and follow- Inonler to give the realer a complete sense of this unprecedented enterprise, it remains for me to point out that Chris Marker does not restrict himself to using, documentary images filmed on the spot, but uses any and all filmic material that might help his case—including still images (eng nd photos), of course, but also animated eartoons. Like McLaren, he does not hesitate to say the most ser fous things in the most comie way (as in the sequence with the mammoths). The is tor in this, firework display of technique: intelli- gence. Intelligence and talent, It is only just to also point out that the photogra phy is by Sacha Viemy, the music the work of Pierre Barhaud, and that the narration is excellently read by Geo This article first appeared in France Observateur, October 30, 1958. ves Rouquier: Continued from poge 41 La Jetse (1962, 28m) Presented (almost) entirely ws se story of man possessed by an image fom his childhood who is subjected to time travel e afer World War I. Markers best-known fil a Jeée brings into pristine focus Markers abiding preoccupations wit ine, mem, death, andthe image. Remade by Tery Gilliam in 1995 as 12 Monkeys torfilmmaker retums to Paris, As well ax beingan homage othe French New Wave, The Kouniko Mystery marks the beginning of Markers fascination with Japan, and pokes gentle fan at san ally kno sce of stil images with voiceover narration, Las Jeée tll the one af einem’ most original and haunting work Le Joli Mai (1962, co-d. with Pieae Lhe: Pat 1: Pate sur la Tour Bille, Pa 2: Le ear de Fantomas: 165) A revealing porvait of Pre close ofthe Algerian War, made up of inter- views with a cross-section of Parisians who cuss their hopes, fears and elie, Mrka’s first vemure into cinéina vite, Le Jol Mat ‘Uhaminates the sharp corzaitions of French sevciey hy ra sie their pinions then uses montage tohigh- light and compare radially diferent expe- Ihsociety atthe is subjects the space to Koumiko Mystery / Le Mystere Koumiko (1965, 54m) A meeting with « young Japanese woman during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics leads to an extended corespondence when the narra- ‘eve tend of nar research by asking in wha terms w another human being, eT Had A photographer and two of his fiends perce and cominent upon photographs taken all yur Camels / Si tte: dromedaires (1966, 49x) nl limits of world during the previous decade. Com ove lke La Jk photographs mean and why they are taken is a p isrditaion on what ype for later projects like Sans soleit, Zapping Zone, and Immemory, in which map of hin own menvony hy sifting hough Marker offers « e in the post. san (1967, 115m) “Marker organized and edited this collee featuring con trtutios by Resoas, Godard, Joris Ives, Willi Klein, and Claude Lelauche. Key forts presentation ofboth the necessity and intelletuals, Far from Vienam was the fi des euvees nouvelles). (Segments by Agnés Varda and Ruy Guerra mere omited from the final ver nitieal protest onthe part of Westen flmmakers en prviuced by S108 (Socié pour la lancement sion, although Marker insisted that they receive onsereen ered.) The Sixth Face of the Pentagon / La Sixiéme face da Pent (1968; cod. with Frangois Reichenbach, 28s) This early SLOY short docume the October 1957 march on the Pentagon to protest theVietnamCopyright © 2003 EBSCO Publishing