Chris Marker
Born: 1921-07-29 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France
Died: 2012-07-29
Known For: Directing
Biography
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.
Filmography
2026
- Nostalgia for the Future as Self (Archive footage)
- L’indispensable as Photos/Extrait
2023
- Ten Lives of a Cat: A Film about Chris Marker as Kaibyō (archive footage)
2020
- The Invention of Chris Marker as Self
2019
- Lluvia de jaulas ... (Thanks)
2017
- The Zone ... (Short Story)
2015
- Chris Marker: Never Explain, Never Complain as Self (archive footage)
2013
- La Jétee ... (Story)
2012
- 20 Little Films ... (Director)
- Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke ... (Writer)
2011
- Overnight ... (Director)
- Tempo Risoluto ... (Editor)
- Kino ... (Director)
- Agnès Varda: From Here to There as Self
- Imagine ... (Director)
- In Chris Marker's Studio as Self
- Stopover in Dubai ... (Director)
- iDead ... (Director)
- ROYAL POLKA.mov ... (Director)
2010
- Ouvroir the Movie ... (Director)
2009
- La Traversée du désir as Self
2008
- The Beaches of Agnès as Self (archive footage)
- Metrotopia ... (Writer)
- Guillaume Movie ... (Writer)
- Henchman Glance ... (Director)
- Pictures at an Exhibition ... (Director)
- The Morning After ... (Director)
2007
- Leila Attacks ... (Director)
- The Andrei Tarkovsky Companion ... (Director)
- A Year of TV Seen by Guillaume ... (Editor)
2006
- The Case of the Grinning Cat ... (Director)
2004
- Green Vinyl ... (Thanks)
2001
- Remembrance of Things to Come ... (Writer)
2000
- A Mayor in Kosovo ... (Director)
1999
- One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich as Self (voice) (uncredited)
- Eclipse ... (Director)
1997
- Level Five as Self (voice) (uncredited)
1995
- Twelve Monkeys ... (Original Film Writer)
- Blue Helmet ... (Director)
- Silent Movie (Edit 2) ... (Director)
1994
- Petite Ceinture ... (Director)
- Tchaïka ... (Director)
- The Last Bolshevik ... (Director)
- Bullfight in Okinawa ... (Director)
- Three Haiku Videos ... (Writer)
- Owl Gets in Your Eyes ... (Director)
1993
- Prime Time in the Camps ... (Director)
- Slon Tango ... (Director)
1991
- Theory of Sets ... (Director)
1990
- Détour Ceausescu ... (Director)
- Berlin 1990 ... (Director)
- Rush - Voyage à Moscou as Self
- Berlin 1990 ... (Director)
- Zoo Piece ... (Director)
- An Owl Is an Owl Is an Owl ... (Director)
- Zapping Zone ... (Director)
1989
- The Owl's Legacy ... (Director)
1988
- Tokyo Days as Self (voice) (uncredited)
- Cat Listening to Music ... (Director)
1986
- Havre ... (Thanks)
- Mémoires pour Simone ... (Director)
1985
- Tokyo-Ga as Self (uncredited)
- A. K. as Self - Narrator (voice)
- Matta '85 ... (Director)
- From Chris to Christo ... (Director)
1984
1983
- Sans Soleil as Self (uncredited)
1981
- Junkopia ... (Original Music Composer)
1979
- The Battle of Chile: Part III ... (Producer)
1978
- When the Century Took Shape (War and Revolution) ... (Director)
- May Days as Self
1977
- A Grin Without a Cat ... (Writer)
1976
- The Spiral ... (Editor)
1974
- Les Deux mémoires ... (Editor)
- The Loneliness of the Long Distance Singer ... (Director)
1973
- The Embassy ... (Writer)
- You Speak of Chile: What Allende Said ... (Director)
- We Maintain It Is Possible ... (Director)
- Kashima Paradise as Narrator (voice)
1972
- Three Cheers for the Whale ... (Director)
1971
- The Train Rolls On ... (Director)
- You Speak of Paris: Maspero. Words Have Meaning ... (Director)
- You Speak of Prague: The Second Trial of Artur London ... (Director)
- Congo Oyé (We Have Come Back) ... (Editor)
- Cuba: Battle of the 10,000,000 ... (Director)
1970
- The Confession ... (Still Photographer)
- Report on Brazil: Carlos Marighella ... (Director)
1969
- Report on Brazil: Torture ... (Director)
- Jour de tournage ... (Director)
1968
- Be Seeing You ... (Director)
- Cinétracts ... (Director)
- The Sixth Side of the Pentagon
1967
- Far from Vietnam ... (Director)
1966
- The Forbidden Volcano ... (Writer)
- If I Had Four Dromedaries ... (Writer)
1965
- The Koumiko Mystery as Narrator
- The Heat of a Thousand Suns ... (Editor)
1964
- Valparaiso ... (Screenplay)
- From a Distant Gaze ... (Director of Photography)
1963
- The Lovely Month of May as Self / Interviewer (voice)
1962
- La Jetée ... (Director)
- Playtime in Paris ... (Editor)
- Lumière Award to Chris Marker as Self
1961
- ¡Cuba Sí! ... (Writer)
1960
- America as Seen by a Frenchman ... (Writer)
- Description of a Struggle ... (Director)
1959
- The Astronauts ... (Director)
1958
- Les hommes de la baleine ... (Writer)
- Broadway by Light ... (Writer)
- Des Hommes Dans Le Ciel ... (Writer)
- The Sea and the Days ... (Writer)
1957
- Django Reinhardt ... (Screenplay)
- The Mystery of Workshop 15 ... (Writer)
- Letter from Siberia as Stargazer (uncredited)
1956
- Night and Fog ... (Assistant Director)
- Sunday in Peking ... (Director)
1953
- Statues Also Die ... (Director)
1952
- Olympia 52 ... (Director)
1950
- Concours de rêve : La Clé des songes ... (Director)
1947
- The End of the World Seen by the Angel Gabriel ... (Director)