Chris Marker (the Medvedkin Group)
Chris Marker was one of the prominent filmmakers in what was known as the “Left Bank Group” of the French New Wave in the 1950s and 1960s; the other directors were Alain Resnais, Agnès Varda, and Jacques Demy. In contrast to the right bank of the French New Wave (Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette), Marker and his fellows in the Left Bank engaged with political themes and problems before the events of 1968. Nevertheless, for Marker, it was 1968 that also marked a radical shift in his filmmaking career. He and Jean Luc Godard formed what they called “the Medvedkin Group.” The group came into being as a response to the criticism Marker received from many of the workers in southeast France to his film Bientot, j’espere, a film that he made in support of their strike. But the criticism he received was not due to his support, but due to the overall gloomy and pessimistic representation of them, not to mention the film’s disregard for women as active participants. Marker, inspired by Soviet filmmaker Alexander Medvedkin’s collectivist approach in the early 1920s Soviet Cinema, responded by establishing this collective group that let the workers work together with the filmmakers in the process of filmmaking.
Bibliography:- Armes, Roy. French Cinema Since 1946, v. 2. London: A.S. Barnes, 1970.
- Blümlinger, Christa. “The Imaginary in the Documentary Image: Chris Marker’s Level Five.” Image [&] Narrative, Vol. 11 No. 1 (2010).
- Bensmaïa, Reda. “From the Photogram to the Pictogram: On Chris Marker’s La Jetée.” Camera obscura 24 (Sept. 1990), 138-161.
- Cooper, Sarah. “Montage, Militancy, Metaphysics: Chris Marker and André Bazin.” Image [&] Narrative, Vol 11 No. 1 (2010).
- Foster, David. “‘Thought-Images’ and Critical-Lyricisms: The Denkbild and Chris Marker’s Le Tombeau d’Alexandre.” Image [&] Narrative, Vol. 10 No. 3 (2009).
- French, Sarah. “‘If they don’t see happiness in the picture at least they’ll see the black’: Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil and the Lyotardian Sublime.” Image [&]Narrative,
Vol. 11 No. 1 (2010).
- Gibson, Ross. “What Do I Know?: Chris Marker and the Essayist Mode of Cinema.” Filmviews 134 (Summer 1988), 26-32.
- Hampton, Howard. “Remembrance of Revolutions Past: Chris Marker’s Anatomies of Melancholy.” Film Comment (May/June, 2003), 33-35.
- Martins, Susana S. “Petit Cinéma of the World or the Mysteries of Chris Marker.” Image [&] Narrative, Vol. 11 No. 1 (2010).
- Murray, Timothy. “Wounds of Repetition in the Age of the Digital: Chris Marker’s Cinematic Ghosts,” Cultural Critique, 46 (Fall, 2000), 102-23.
Bibliography:- Armes, Roy. French Cinema Since 1946, v. 2. London: A.S. Barnes, 1970.
- Blümlinger, Christa. “The Imaginary in the Documentary Image: Chris Marker’s Level Five.” Image [&] Narrative, Vol. 11 No. 1 (2010).
- Bensmaïa, Reda. “From the Photogram to the Pictogram: On Chris Marker’s La Jetée.” Camera obscura 24 (Sept. 1990), 138-161.
- Cooper, Sarah. “Montage, Militancy, Metaphysics: Chris Marker and André Bazin.” Image [&] Narrative, Vol 11 No. 1 (2010).
- Foster, David. “‘Thought-Images’ and Critical-Lyricisms: The Denkbild and Chris Marker’s Le Tombeau d’Alexandre.” Image [&] Narrative, Vol. 10 No. 3 (2009).
- French, Sarah. “‘If they don’t see happiness in the picture at least they’ll see the black’: Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil and the Lyotardian Sublime.” Image [&]Narrative,
Vol. 11 No. 1 (2010).
- Gibson, Ross. “What Do I Know?: Chris Marker and the Essayist Mode of Cinema.” Filmviews 134 (Summer 1988), 26-32.
- Hampton, Howard. “Remembrance of Revolutions Past: Chris Marker’s Anatomies of Melancholy.” Film Comment (May/June, 2003), 33-35.
- Martins, Susana S. “Petit Cinéma of the World or the Mysteries of Chris Marker.” Image [&] Narrative, Vol. 11 No. 1 (2010).
- Murray, Timothy. “Wounds of Repetition in the Age of the Digital: Chris Marker’s Cinematic Ghosts,” Cultural Critique, 46 (Fall, 2000), 102-23.