Repertory Picks

Road Marker

The programmers of St. Louis’s fourth annual Classic French Film Festival series, copresented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series, have veered a bit from the usual path by including Chris Marker’s idiosyncratic travelogue Sans soleil in their lineup. Alongside such established Gallic favorites as Marcel Carné’s Children of Paradise, Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion, and Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear, Marker’s hypnotic documentary, which screens July 19, seems the wonderfully odd man out. A film that functions like a free-association session, Sans soleil is a spectacular meditation on time and memory that crisscrosses the globe to reveal truths about humanity and technology in the modern world. Watch the first minute of Sans soleil below to see the image that inspired Marker to embark on the project. Also, love the title font.


You have no items in your shopping cart