Sans soleil (1983)

Director:

Chris Marker

Writer:

Chris Marker (writer)

Release Date:

2 March 1983 (France)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

"He wrote me...." A woman narrates the thoughts of a world traveler, meditations on time and memory...

Plot Keywords:

Japan | Time | Memory | Cat | Dream

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Florence Delay	...	Narrator (French version) (voice)
Arielle Dombasle	...	Herself
Riyoko Ikeda	...	Narrator (Japanese version) (voice)
Charlotte Kerr	...	Narrator (German version) (voice)
Kim Novak	...	Herself / Madeleine Elster / Judy Burton (archive footage)
Alexandra Stewart	...	Narrator (English version) (voice)
James Stewart	...	Himself / John 'Scottie' Ferguson (archive footage)

Directed by
Chris Marker		(as Chris. Marker)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Chris Marker		writer (as Chris. Marker)

Original Music by
Michel Krasna

Cinematography by
Chris Marker

Film Editing by
Chris Marker		(as Chris. Marker)

Camera and Electrical Department
Arthur Cloquet	....	assistant camera
Ghislain Cloquet	....	assistant camera
Eric Dumage	....	assistant camera
Dominique Gentil	....	assistant camera
Jimmy Glasberg	....	assistant camera
Kazuko Kawakita	....	assistant camera
Pierre Lhomme	....	assistant camera
Tom Luddy	....	assistant camera

Thanks
Eugenio Bentivoglio	....	acknowledgment: archive footage (segment: Guerrilla in Bissau)
Jean-Michel Humeau	....	acknowledgment: archive footage (segment: Graduation Ceremony)
Mario Marret	....	acknowledgment: archive footage (segment: Guerrilla in Bissau)
Sana Na N'Hada	....	acknowledgment: archive footage (segment: Bissau Carnival)
Haroun Tazieff	....	acknowledgment: archive footage (segment: Iceland 1970)
Danièle Tessier	....	acknowledgment: archive footage (segment: Death of a Giraffe)

Production Companies

• Argos Films

Distributors

• Aurora (2006) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• New Yorker Films (1983) (USA) (dubbed)
• Ripley's Home Video (2007) (Italy) (DVD) (boxed set)

Also Known As:

Bez solntsa Sunless Sans soleil (complete title)
Sunless
Without Sun (International: English title)

Runtime:

USA:100 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | Japanese | English

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Brazil:18 | Singapore:M18

Filming Locations:

Cape Verde

Company:

Argos Films

Quotes:

Narrator: Rumour has it that every third-world a leader coined the same phrase the morning after independence. "Now the real problems start." Cabral never got a chance to say it: he was assassinated first. But the problems started, and went on, and are still going on. Rather unexciting problems for revolutionary romanticism: to work, to produce, to distribute, to overcome postwar exhaustion, temptations of power and privilege. Ah well...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Tokyo-Ga (1985)

A film that can make earth seem like a strange and foreign planet

A poetic and rambling essay film, in the form of a letter from a lost and lonely traveller. Chris Marker lets his mind and camera roam through the landscape of early eighties Japan, and his imagination drift across the world. Memory history and emotion blend into a loving study of human existence. The film's form is loose and sprawling and it it almost impossible to try to follow it in any linear fashion. Instead it washes across the surface of you conscious mind, occasionally burrowing deep with images you can never forget. It is a completely unique film and is inspiring in its ability to bring the political, the philosophical and the poetic together on screen. Chris Marker is one of the unsung greats of film history.