Chris Marker
Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve, better known as Chris Marker (France, 29 July 1921 – 29 July 2012), was a French writer, poet, activist, critic, photographer, traveler, journalist, film essayist, multimedia artist, and documentary filmmaker.
He began his career as part of the French Rive Gauche group—parallel to but distinct from the Nouvelle Vague—with which he would later share certain themes and collaborators. Marker is credited with developing the subjective documentary and is considered a pioneer of collective cinema in France. His films are known for their poetic, essayistic, and often experimental qualities, blending a reflective voice with a fascination for memory, art, war, politics, culture, and nature. Over six decades of work, he observed the world with meticulous curiosity, irony, and compassion, continually experimenting with new forms of image manipulation and montage.
He was also famously elusive. For many years, few people knew what Chris Marker looked like—he disliked being photographed, and no confirmed portraits were publicly available. He often amused himself by giving contradictory accounts of his life in the rare interviews he granted. As Philippe Dubois observed, “Chris Marker is, in a way, the most celebrated of the unknown filmmakers.” His official website adds: “Rather than a man without qualities, he is a man without biography.”
Marker also worked under numerous pseudonyms, including Hayao Yamaneko, Jacopo Berenzini, Kosinki, Michel Krasna, Sandor Krasna, and Guillaume-en-Égypte (his feline avatar), though his best-known identity remains Chris Marker.
Among his most significant works are La Jetée (1962), Sans Soleil (1983), Far from Vietnam (1967), A Grin Without a Cat (1977), A.K. (1985), Level Five (1997), and One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich (1999). He also explored interactive and digital media with the CD-ROM Immemory (1997), maintained a website titled Gorgomancy, a YouTube channel called Kosinki, and created a virtual gallery, Ouvroir, within the online world Second Life.
Crew
Sans Soleil
Director, Writer, Music, Director of Photography, Editor, Visual Effects
La Jetée
Director, Director of Photography, Screenplay
¡Cuba Sí!
Writer, Screenplay, Director of Photography, Director
Remembrance of Things to Come
Director, Writer, Music
When the Century Took Shape (War and Revolution)
Director
Statues Also Die
Director, Writer
Cat Listening to Music
Director
Rush - Voyage à Moscou
Director
A Grin Without a Cat
Director, Writer, Editor
Level Five
Director, Writer, Original Music Composer, Director of Photography
Junkopia
Director, Writer, Original Music Composer, Editor
The Last Bolshevik
Director, Writer, Editor, Director of Photography
A Year of TV Seen by Guillaume
Director, Editor
The Case of the Grinning Cat
Director, Writer, Editor, Music, Cinematography
The Koumiko Mystery
Director, Writer, Director of Photography, Editor
The Embassy
Director, Writer, Cinematography
The Lovely Month of May
Director, Writer
Letter from Siberia
Director, Writer
One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich
Director, Writer, Editor, Director of Photography
The Train Rolls On
Director, Writer, Editor
Cuba: Battle of the 10,000,000
Director
Olympia 52
Director, Writer
2084: Video Clip for the Trade Unions' Reflection and Pleasure
Director, Writer, Editor
Sunday in Peking
Director, Writer, Director of Photography
Description of a Struggle
Director, Writer
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Singer
Director, Editor
If I Had Four Dromedaries
Director, Writer, Editor, Director of Photography
The Sixth Side of the Pentagon
Director, Producer, Director of Photography
Three Cheers for the Whale
Director, Writer, Editor, Sound
You Speak of Paris: Maspero. Words Have Meaning
Director
You Speak of Prague: The Second Trial of Artur London
Director
We Maintain It Is Possible
Director
A Mayor in Kosovo
Director
An Owl Is an Owl Is an Owl
Director
Theory of Sets
Director, Producer
Prime Time in the Camps
Director
Bullfight in Okinawa
Director
Silent Movie (Edit 2)
Director
Tokyo Days
Director, Editor, Writer, Director of Photography
Blue Helmet
Director, Writer, Editor
Three Haiku Videos
Director, Producer, Writer
Cinétracts
Director, Writer
Leila Attacks
Director, Director of Photography
Ouvroir the Movie
Director, Writer
The Confession
Still Photographer
Night and Fog
Assistant Director, Script Editor
The Sea and the Days
Writer
Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke
Writer
Owl Gets in Your Eyes
Director
Mémoires pour Simone
Director
From Chris to Christo
Director
The Heat of a Thousand Suns
Editor
Détour Ceausescu
Director, Writer
A. K.
Director, Writer, Editor
Guillaume Movie
Director, Writer
Overnight
Director, Writer
Far from Vietnam
Director, Writer, Producer, Editor
Report on Brazil: Torture
Director, Writer
Des Hommes Dans Le Ciel
Writer
The Mystery of Workshop 15
Writer
Berlin 1990
Director, Editor, Writer
Django Reinhardt
Screenplay
The Forbidden Volcano
Writer, Screenplay
Congo Oyé (We Have Come Back)
Editor
You Speak of Chile: What Allende Said
Director
Report on Brazil: Carlos Marighella
Director, Writer, Editor
The Morning After
Director, Editor
Tempo Risoluto
Director, Editor
Pictures at an Exhibition
Director
Les hommes de la baleine
Writer
Twelve Monkeys
Original Film Writer
The Andrei Tarkovsky Companion
Director
Stopover in Dubai
Director, Editor
Metrotopia
Director, Writer
The Battle of Chile: Part II
Producer
The Battle of Chile: Part III
Producer, Other
America as Seen by a Frenchman
Writer
Class of Struggle
Director
The End of the World Seen by the Angel Gabriel
Director, Writer, Editor, Director of Photography
From a Distant Gaze
Director of Photography
