My review of Eclipse's THE DELIRIOUS FICTIONS OF WILLIAM KLEIN (including MR. FREEDOM, pictured) is now available for reading in the new issue of SIGHT & SOUND and also available on their website.Earlier this week, I revisited Chris Marker's classic LA JETÉE as preparation for my next SIGHT & SOUND column, which is about a series of new Chris Marker titles from First Run Icarus Films, and noticed a "Bill Klein" in the cast list -- if it's indeed the same fellow, as seems likely, it's quite appropriate casting for a film so dependent on exquisite photography. (I just checked the IMDb and they report he played one of the men from the future.) Furthermore, GreenCine Daily reveals that today is M. Klein's 80th birthday, and I certainly wish him Many Happy Returns.
Incidentally, also in the cast of LA JETÉE is Ligia Borowczyk, the wife of Walerian Borowczyk, playing one of the women from the future. Her presence reminds us that Chris Marker and Walerian Borowczyk had previously collaborated on a short sf-themed film titled LES ASTRONAUTES in 1959, in which Ligia and at least one other cast member of LA JETÉE were featured. You can actually see this remarkable 14m film on YouTube (click to see Part One and Part Two), but let us hope that a proper release of this collaboration will be among the other Marker and Marker-related shorts forthcoming from First Run Icarus Films...
Update 4/20: Someone signing himself "Bill" reports that LES ASTRONAUTES is included as an extra in the Cult Epics DVD release of Borowczyk's GOTO, ISLAND OF LOVE. It has also subsequently been learned over at GreenCine Daily that William Klein was indeed the Bill Klein of LA JETÉE, and that his wife Janine also appeared in the film as one of the people from the future. Even more interesting to me, Klein was the American narrator of the English version of Marker's classic short -- his track is included on the Criterion DVD. It only remains to be discovered how much, if any, input he had into the film's still photography.
