Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Film Chris Marker, 1921-2012
Posted by Jim Ridley on Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 5:23 AM
"There’s a wonderful French expression with no easy English equivalent, ésprit de l’escalier, and it’s profoundly a writer’s dilemma: the experience of thinking of something to say after the perfect moment for saying it has passed. (The expression translates literally as 'staircase wit' or 'after wit'—the kind of witty remark that comes to mind just as one is leaving, heading down the stairs.) Marker’s artistic persona in his essay films is typically split between his identity as a spontaneous, roving cameraman or still photographer and his identity as a writer thinking and reflecting much later about what he’s shot. His essay films can be seen as waking reveries that finally enable him to join raw, primeval impressions with studied afterthoughts in an ideal sort of congruence — a marriage made in heaven, so to speak." —Jonathan Rosenbaum on the late Chris Marker's Sans Soleil
"I saw what had been my window again. I saw emerge familiar roofs and balconies, the landmarks of the walks I took through town every day, down to the cliff where I had met the children. The cat with white socks that Haroun had been considerate enough to film for me naturally found its place. And I thought, of all the prayers to time that had studded this trip the kindest was the one spoken by the woman of Gotokuji, who said simply to her cat Tora, 'Cat, wherever you are, peace be with you.' ” —Chris Marker, Sans Soleil
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