‘Sans Soleil’ by Chris Marker

Watch: ‘Sans Soleil’ by Chris Marker

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sans-Soleil-Chris-Marker/dp/B00HS9EBFG

Sans Soleil is described as ‘a meditation on the nature of human memory, showing the inability to recall the context and nuances of memory, and how, as a result, the perception of personal and global histories is affected’. Though, the main point I took from the entirety of the documentary is how chris marker is curious on how others live in different parts of the world. Though he could also be curious about the way he should be living his life, as he observes others.

Personally I feel that this documentary must be viewed more than once as there’s so many elements to this film that can unraveled, though not on the first viewing. There wasn’t exactly a clear narrative, as it cuts between scenes in Tokyo and scenes in west africa, possibly accentuating the difference in lifestyle. The film is essentially a mixture of journey from the opening scene on the ferry to a dream.

At the time stamp of around 12 minutes, there is a long scene focusing on the cultural dancing in Tokyo which felt significant as it was an unusually long scene though it made me feel, as the audience, that I was experiencing the same memory through the use of quick closeups and the hand held camera. It felt personal, as did the entire film in fact.

Throughout the entire documentary, a woman is reading letters from a man she refers to as ‘he’ which could be Chris Marker himself though its not exactly revealed. However, the narration over the moving images felt like an open letter or someone essentially thinking out loud about the way of life.

I understand Chris Markers goal and approach to the way he made this film. I also appreciate the cinematography in this film; as I mentioned previously, it is personal, almost as if the audience are travelling and observing with him. However, I personally felt that the narrative was not strong as it was not exactly conventional. This is understandable as the film challenges the viewer to think deeply about the context and meaning of the images as Chris Marker definitely makes creative choices from using his own footage to using archival footage. The film did cause me to lose interest at certain points, though maybe it’s the matter of a modern audience.