Sans Soleil

Chris Marker's documentary Sans Soleil is a very unique film. Sans Soleil could be classified as an imaginary documentary because it contains fictional elements. Chris Marker is a male director who decides to use a female voice for his narration. The narrator, although female, is portraying Marker's thoughts. She is supposedly receiving letters, video clips, and images from a cameraman who is traveling to all of these places. The narrator then reads the letters like they are written to her, but they are actually to Marker since she is narrating his thoughts. In actuality though, the cameraman is non-existent and a fictional character. Although imaginary, this is still a documentary because actual footage is used and it is trying to convey a message.

This film looks at the relationship between consciousness, memory, time, and history. The entire film involves the narrator thinking out loud and commenting on past events. People seem to have a hard time remembering past events.

The title of the documentary Sans Soleil means sunless. At the beginning of the film, there is an image of three girls walking down a country road on a sunny day. The narrator comments on how happy they are. As the documentary progresses, we see big cities, robot models like the one of JFK, machines like the Zone that can change and edit images from the past, and electronics like video games. Obviously, we have become more advanced and industrialized which limits the amount of sun we get. Maybe having less sun has caused a decrease in our true happiness. People cannot seem to recall life before all these advances. They cannot remember history. All they can seem to do is think of the future. The narrator makes a comment about how video games offer a future for intelligence.

At several points during the film, the narration does not match the visual images shown. An example of this is when the narrator is talking about Japanese girls but the image shown on the screen is a rocket launching into the sky. Having an image that does not go along with the narration is very confusing. I think that the visual image should match the narration; otherwise, i do not know whether to concentrate on the image or the narration. If I listen to the narration, then I block out the unrelated image and develop my own image in my head that relates. If I concentrate on the image, I ignore the narration and create my own explanation for the image in my head. It is impossible for me to concentrate on two conflicting things.