Nostalgia for the Future

Chris Marker was a filmmaker, artist and writer who was as visionary as he was famously elusive.

Now, he forms the mysterious locus of this documentary drawing on his expansive archives.

Chris Marker liked to describe himself as “the best-known author of unknown films”, but perhaps the opposite is true. Today, there is widespread reverence for works such as La Jetée, his fleet but haunting sci-fi almost entirely comprising still images (and that later formed the basis for Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys), and Sans Soleil (MIFF 1983), the existential travelogue that redefined the essay film. But Marker – one of numerous pseudonyms he used in his 91 years – very rarely gave interviews; averse to being photographed, he often used a drawing of his cat as an avatar.

The director’s death in 2012 left behind 550 boxes of archival material. Together with excerpts from his groundbreaking body of work, these materials form the basis for Brecht Debackere’s probing but necessarily oblique portrait of the artist – as narrated by Charlotte Rampling (Swimming Pool, MIFF 2003), the magisterial actor here personifying an archivist. In tune with Marker’s preoccupations, Nostalgia for the Future is a meditation on the slippery persistence of memory, personal as well as cultural: a precious souvenir for existing fans, and a beguiling introduction for anyone who wishes to peer behind his Cheshire grin.

Content: Melbourne International Film Festival