The new edition of Sight & Sound (October 2012) carries seven pages of tributes to this noted filmmaker. These include the Chilean filmmaker Patricio Gusmán for whom Marker was both a staunch and practical ally in the making of The Battle of Chile (1975, 76, 78): and Agnès Varda, who included Marker’s alternative screen persona ‘Guillaume-en-Egypte’ in her own Agnes de ci là Varda (2011). Marker was one of the most imaginative and stimulating filmmakers in the second half of Cinema’s Century. Another would be his friend and collaborator Alain Resnais: another would be Peter Watkins. I note that the Tate Modern is running a retrospective of the last-named’s work in September, hopefully the films of both directors will circulate in the North.

Marker’s La Jetée (1962) is a film that I have screened time and again for students: it is not only powerful and intriguing but it prompts thought about the very nature of cinema. Unfortunately it is now two decades since I was able to see The Grin Without a Cat (Le fond de l’air est rouge, 1977). But it is one of the most impressive documentaries that I have ever seen. Twenty plus years on there are sequences that I remember with greater clarity than in much more recent film works. And Sans soleil (1982) is a film that one can return to many times and find new stimulation.

So Chris Marker will be missed. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to enjoy his creative work from all of the six decades in which he was involved in filmmaking.

N.B. Some of the tributes in Sight and Sound are to be found at: www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound