Introduction and Q&A featuring Paul Chan and Lynne Sachs moderated by Sadie Starnes
SATURDAY JUNE 1, 2024 at 2:30pm
Metrograph | 7 Ludlow Street, New York City
https://metrograph.com/film/?vista_film_id=9999003795
To mark the publication of the first English-language edition of Chris Marker’s 1982 photo-essay Le Dépays by Film Desk Books, Metrograph offers a program of films that touch on some of the director’s recurring obsessions, as evidenced in this remarkable volume. A program of short films explore some of his favorite animal avatars (Cat Listening to Music, An Owl is an Owl is an Owl), and his profound connection to Japan (The Koumiko Mystery, Sans Soleil, Tokyo Days), followed by a panel discussion with Paul Chan and Lynne Sachs, moderated by Sadie Starnes, while A.K., Marker’s portrait of Akira Kurosawa on the set of Ran (1985), screens in a very special double bill.
“Inventing Japan is just another way of getting to know it. Once you’ve gotten beyond the clichés, once you’ve outwitted the cliché of cutting through the clichés, then the chances are mathematically the same for all, and consider the time you’ve saved! Trust appearances, consciously confuse the décor with the drama, never worry about understanding, just be there—dasein—and everything will come your way. Well, something, at least.”—Marker, in Le Dépays
DIRECTOR: CHRIS MARKER
1988 / 73MIN / DIGITAL
Program:
Cat Listening to Music (1990, 3′)
An Owl Is an Owl (1990, 3′)
Tokyo Days (1988, 21′)
The Koumiko Mystery (1965, 46′)
Marker’s profound connection to Japan is explored in The Koumiko Mystery, which he filmed at the time of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, an event that permanently altered the face of the city. The first of Marker’s many portraits of the Japanese capital follows a young Japanese woman, Koumiko Muraoka, on a guided tour of her hometown. A thrilling city symphony/essay film, capturing the throbbing pulse of a metropolis in the midst of self-reinvention. Screens with two shorts that explore some of Marker’s favorite animal avatars—Cat Listening to Music and An Owl is an Owl is an Owl—followed by a panel discussion with artist and writer Paul Chan and filmmaker and poet Lynne Sachs, moderated by Sadie Starnes.
Cat Listening to Music, An Owl is an Owl is an Owl, Tokyo Days courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
