The science fiction community mourns today, due to the death of classic author and film director Chris Marker. Marker was well known for his works of La jetée (1962) and Sans Soleil (1983).

La jetée (Chris Marker’s most notable work) is a short science fiction film, produced only in black in white, and includes only still photography to tell the story. The premise of La jetée is best described in the plot description below from IMDb:

“Time travel, still images, a past, present and future and the aftermath of World War III. The tale of a man, a slave, sent back and forth, in and out of time, to find a solution to the world’s fate. To replenish its decreasing stocks of food, medicine and energies, and in doing so, resulting in a perpetual memory of a lone female, life, death and past events that are recreated on an airports jetée.”

To see Chris Marker’s work in action, please view the YouTube clip provided below.

(In 1995, a movie called Twelve Monkeys was released as an up-to-date adaptation of Marker’s La jetée.)

Apart from his involvement with La jetée, Marker directed 52 different titles, and wrote 43 titles as well. (Source: a href=”http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003408/” target=”_blank”>IMDb).

On Monday, July 30th of 2012, Chris Marker (born Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve) died of natural causes at the age of 91. Various fans of his work have been active in sending condolences on Twitter.