CHRIS MARKER IS A GUEST OF BAKU

Azerbaijan Union of Filmmakers has completed “100 % classics: The taste of French cinema” with the works of Chris Marker.

On June 21, director’s only fiction film “Runway” and documentary “Letters from Siberia” were screened in Azerbaijan cinema. “Runway” tells the story of Parisians living in underground catacombs after thermonuclear attack of third world war.

French film specialist Murad Abiyev, while analyzing Chris Marker’s work, said that he was founder of the film-essay genre and brought innovation to documentary:

“Chris Marker, as a writer, accompanies his films with a voiceover text. But this voiceover is not propaganda in nature. It is poetic, subjective insomuch that gives additional meaning to the images. It invites the audience to explore the film’s sublayers. This style has already become a “mainstream”.  There is a famous scene in the film that was added to the textbooks.

There, the director shows a scene 3 times over and over again. It reveals the subjectivity and manipulation styles of cinema, audiovisual arts in general, and media.” Jerome Kelly, cultural affairs attaché of French embassy in Azerbaijan, was also a guest at the screening.

“Chris Marker, as a writer, accompanies his films with a rich text. But this voiceover text is not propaganda in nature. It is poetic, subjective insomuch that gives additional meaning to the images. It invites the audience to explore the film’s sublayers. This style has already become a “mainstream”.

Those who attended at the screening shared their opinions at the discussion after screening.

A lawyer Khalid Baghirov mentioned that the use of photos by director in this film is not coincidental. This is directly related to the content of the film: “The world ended, the bomb exploded and the life stopped. While scientists experimenting they try to find Adam and Eve again and give a new formula of life. The film is on that, but they still don’t know how many days their dates lasted. Because time does not run yet, the experiment is still going on. When the life begins, it will also run. They kill the protagonist at the end of the film. It seems that the director has no hope for life.”

When French film expert Murad Abiyev asked about the similarities between two films, a film theorist Sadagat Kamal said that the subject of the films are universal problems: “I wouldn`t call Chris Marker only leftist. This director is really interested in universal problems.”

AUF will also continue screenings in the upcoming weeks.

aki.az