Chris Marker’s Split-Second Cameo in SANS SOLEIL
so far as elusive figures go, chris marker isn’t exactly j.d. salinger or anything, but the renowned visual artist is about as far removed from kevin smith as contemporary filmmakers get (er… “living filmmakers” might be the more accurate term). Marker typically represents himself with the image of a cat, and his actual appearances are rare enough for each to qualify as minor events — his brief cameo in Wim Wenders Tokyo-Ga is so jarring that it can unmoor viewers from the rest of the film.
today i re-watched Marker’s masterpiece Sans Soleil, in part because we’re discussing it on this week’s episode of Operation Kino (Cinema Blend’s podcast, on which i’m one of the co-hosts), and in part because it’s… you know… a day. if i had noticed Marker’s split-second cameo / self-portrait before, i hadn’t remembered. but there he is, just for a frame or two, his face in a camera on a monitor in a camera, on the streets of Tokyo. i considered getting off my ass and retrieving my Canon 7D for the screen grab, but i decided that my iPhone was somehow a more appropriate means of recording this image (i almost feel like this is a spoiler, but you can find it at the 56:06 mark).
Criterion’s Blu-ray of LA JETEE and SANS SOLEIL is in stores now.
