Editing Chris Marker (section)

==Early life==

Marker was born '''Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve'''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eai.org/artistBio.htm?id=317|title=''Chris Marker biography'' Electronic Arts Intermix|access-date=22 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110121123131/http://eai.org/artistBio.htm?id=317|archive-date=21 January 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was always elusive about his past and known to refuse interviews and not allow photographs to be taken of him; his place of birth is highly disputed.<ref name="Wakeman" /> Some sources and Marker himself claim that he was born in [[Ulaanbaatar]], Mongolia.<ref>Thomson, David, ''The New Biographical Dictionary of Film''{{spaced ndash}} Fourth Edition, Little, Brown (2003).</ref> Other sources say he was born in [[Belleville, Paris]], and others, in [[Neuilly-sur-Seine]].<ref name="Wakeman" /> The 1949 edition of ''Le Cœur Net'' gives his birthday as 22 July. Film critic [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]] has said, "Marker told me himself that Mongolia is correct. I have since concluded that Belleville is correct—but that does not spoil the spiritual truth of Ulan Bator."<ref>Thomson, David, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film{{spaced ndash}} Fifth Edition, Little, Brown (2010).</ref> When asked about his secretive nature, Marker said, "My films are enough for them [the audience]."<ref name="Wakeman" />

Marker was a philosophy student in France before [[World War II]]. During the German occupation of France, he joined the [[Maquis (World War II)|Maquis (FTP)]], a part of the [[French Resistance]]. At some point during the war he left France and joined the [[United States Air Force]] as a paratrooper,<ref name="Wakeman" /> although some sources claim that this is not true.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chrismarker.org/2008/03/nyt-all-movie-guides-chris-marker-bio/ |title=NYT & All Movie Guide's Chris Marker Bio – Notes from the Era of Imperfect Memory |publisher=Chrismarker.org |date=29 July 1921 |access-date=9 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120819201105/http://www.chrismarker.org/2008/03/nyt-all-movie-guides-chris-marker-bio/ |archive-date=19 August 2012}}</ref> After the war, he began a career as a journalist, first writing for the journal ''[[Esprit (magazine)|Esprit]]'', a neo-Catholic, [[Marxist]] magazine where he met fellow journalist [[André Bazin]]. For ''Esprit'', Marker wrote political commentaries, poems, short stories, and film reviews.

During this period, Marker began to travel around the world as a journalist and photographer, a vocation he pursued for the rest of his life. The French publishing company [[Éditions du Seuil]] hired him as editor of the series ''Petite Planète'' ("Small World").<ref>[https://www.publishinghistory.com/petit-planete-seuil.html Petit Planète (Microcosme (Seuil) book series list], publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 7 March 2020.</ref> That collection devoted one edition to each country and included information and photographs,<ref name="Wakeman" /> and would later be published in English translation by [[Studio Vista]] and [[Viking Press|The Viking Press]].<ref>[https://www.publishinghistory.com/vista-travel-studio-vista.html Vista Travel (Studio Vista) - Book Series List], publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 9 October 2020.</ref> In 1949 Marker published his first novel, ''Le Coeur net'' (''The Forthright Spirit''), which was about aviation. In 1952 Marker published an illustrated essay on French writer [[Jean Giraudoux]], ''Giraudoux Par Lui-Même''.<ref name="Wakeman" />