Chris Marker’s epic series The Owl’s Legacy (1989) is neither a deeply ‘auterist’ work nor a brilliant piece of Cinema. It is, plainly, the documentation of a thirteen-part symposium on Ancient Greece enabled by the Onassis Foundation and conceptualized by Marker. However, the amount of ground it covers and the number of new directions it opens up for us to think about contemporary politics, science, culture, law, economy and art (specifically, cinema) makes it one of the richest works of criticism that I’ve come across. It is extremely unfortunate, then, that it is neither available on video officially in any form nor spoken about really widely. Following a slew of earnest mails (OK, two mails) asking me if there was any site where the film can be viewed online with English subtitles, I decided to upload the copy I have of the entire series. Of course, all credits go to the original uploader who floated TV rip on the internet. It is because of people like her/him that the Internet has turned out to be the greatest repository of culture, globally.
[Note: There is no monetary interest for me in this endeavor and if you feel that the series shouldn’t be put online the way I have here, please drop a note in the comments section]
1. Symposium, or Accepted Ideas
2. Olympics, or Imaginary Greece
3. Democracy, or the City of Dreams
4. Nostalgia, or the Impossible Return
5. Amnesia, or History on the March
6. Mathematics, or the Empire Counts Back
7. Logomachy, or the Dialect of the Tribe
8. Music, or Inner Space
9. Cosmogony, or the Ways of the World
10. Mythology, or Lies like Truth
11. Misogyny, or the Snares of Desire
12. Tragedy, or the Illusion of Death
13. Philosophy, or the Triumph of the Owl
(Incomplete)
The Seventh Art 
April 23, 2011 at 9:09 am
The last episode has about 10 minutes missing at the end. I will update the segment once I get the full version.
If you have a copy of the full final episode and are interested, please upload and place a comment here. I will add it to the post.
Meanwhile, you can watch the full series (including the full last episode) in French at Gorgomancy.
Thanks.
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April 23, 2011 at 11:47 pm
Thanks very much for drawing attention to and posting this. I hadn’t heard of it. I quite liked Sans Soleil and La Jetee. I liked Chats Perches more.
Personally I cannot see any particular moral problem given that it is not available for sale. I think it’s good that people get to see it and perhaps the more publicity it gets the more likely that it will be released in a finer version in the future.
I will come back when I’ve watched it through. Thanks.
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April 23, 2011 at 11:49 pm
True that, Stephen. But I don’t know if some group holds the rights without releasing it on video or some such complication.
But I’ll put it up as long as no one objects.
Thanks and Cheers!
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April 24, 2011 at 10:04 pm
Astounding cinematic scholarship and a Hall of Fame caliber presentation Srikanth! Like Stephen I know Marker’s work for those two seminal films. But I wasn’t aware this even existed and by a modest scan of these you tubes, I found this a prospectically fascinating work, even if it is not (as you contend) any kind of a brilliant work of cinema, not a ‘deeply auturist’ work. I am most interested in all cultural aspects of ancient Greece, and fill applaud your decision of upload the entire series here!
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April 24, 2011 at 10:16 pm
Thank you, Sam. DO see this series when possible. I saw this one over 2 years ago, along with many other Marker films. I need to revisit it as well.
Marker is my favorite French filmmaker of all time (this probably even includes JLG!). And it’s sad that most of his great films – LETTERS FROM SIBERIA (the way reconfigures pushes the cine-diary must just be seen), THE OWL’S LEGACY, GRIN WITHOUT A CAT, BE SEEING YOU (a truly remarkable work that most radical films fail to emulate), THE TRAIN ROLLS ON (a deeply extra-textual masterwork), LEVEL FIVE, and, of course, THE LAST BOLSHEVIK (one of the four or five greatest films of the 90s) – remain relatively underseen, like the director himself. Sure hope this changes.
Cheers!
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April 25, 2011 at 8:19 am
[…] Just Another Film Buff (Srikanth) has a staggering post up on The Owl’s Legacy by Chris Marker at The Seventh Art, which simply must be seen!!!: https://theseventhart.info/2011/04/23/publicizing-the-legacy/ […]
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April 29, 2011 at 10:33 pm
[…] Speaking of Chris Marker, Seventh Art has posted nearly the entirety of Marker’s 1989 television symposium The Owl’s legacy. Despite an […]
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November 11, 2011 at 10:57 am
A request (in two parts):
1. Please make the files *downloadable* on viddler (or upload them to vimeo, youtube or another site where one could download them).
2. Alternatively, enable the HTML5 Viddler embed option (you currently have the embed code set incorrectly, and no html5 videos play).
I am an iPad user who would like to be able to view these without being shackled to the flash player. Plus there would be an added element of permanence to their existence if some of us could archive a copy.
Thank you,
Bez
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November 11, 2011 at 11:05 am
Done!
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November 12, 2011 at 12:26 am
I’m not seeing anything different (no downloading or html5 video playing). If you enable downloading of the viddler files you see a disk icon and “download this” next to the “flag” and “share” options below the video.
Here’s an example of a viddler video with downloading enabled: http://www.viddler.com/explore/engadget/videos/3493/
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November 12, 2011 at 12:39 am
Sorry for the mix-up, Bez. I’d changed a setting that affects only new videos. I’ve manually changed the download setting now. Hope it’s fine now.
Cheers!
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November 12, 2011 at 12:46 am
I see it isn’t enabled even now. I guess Viddler’s acting up. Let’s wait for a few hours and see if applies the settings (because I can clearly see that EVERYONE IS ALLOWED TO DOWNLOAD setting is enabled for these 13 videos now)
On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 12:39 AM, justanotheremailid@gmail.com wrote:
> Sorry for the mix-up, Bez. I’d changed a setting that affects only new > videos. I’ve manually changed the download setting now. Hope it’s fine now. > > Cheers! > >
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November 12, 2011 at 9:38 am
Bez,
I’ve a feeling that you’d be able to download these videos only if you have a login at Viddler. I don’t think Viddler allows you to download without signing in. Would be helpful if you could confirm.
CHeers!
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November 12, 2011 at 11:38 am
This is odd that it isn’t working. No you do not need to have a viddler account to download. Take a look at the example link I posted earlier:
http://www.viddler.com/explore/engadget/videos/3493/
If you click on the “download this” icon/button you’ll see the file is available to download in “Original, Flash, FlashHD, MP4, MP4 HD and 3GPP”. You don’t have to be logged in to download either.
I must confess that I am not a viddler expert. The instructions about the sharing and downloading settings can be found on this page:
http://www.viddler.com/help/articles/default_video_sharing_options/
Barring an oversight of one of the steps listed above, perhaps this is a setting that has to be chosen at the time you upload. Maybe it’s not available posthumously. An attempt to upload one of the files again with the sharing/downloading settings enabled would test this hypotheses.
Your efforts in this are greatly appreciated. Perhaps it’s the point at which a viddler alternative should be found? Rapidshare, Dropbox, Vimeo, or dare I say bittorent.
Bez
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November 12, 2011 at 11:49 am
Bez,
Thanks for that update. I’ve checked that I’m doing the right stuff. And yet… I guess it’s just a posthumous thing, as you point out.
The series IS available for download at a number of torrent and filesharing sites. I’d uploaded it specifically to a video sharing site for thoseunfamiliar with such obscure sites and those who do not want to download files separately and instead just want to stream the videos. And I’d chosen Viddler because it was the only option (then) which allowed me to upload long videos and didn’t have an upload limit.
Cheers!
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November 13, 2011 at 7:39 am
Viddler does seem like the best choice of those available. And, hey, it does work for most use cases! I am more the exception than the rule, at least for now.
I have tried to access the files at the link you shared (worldsofcinema), but they don’t work. You either get an error or they require a pay account (they also seem to be the French language versions, rather than the english ones you have posted here).
Since I don’t have access to karagarga or any of the other secret sites out there, I guess I’ll just wait and hope that someone sees this and comes up with another option in the future.
Bez
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November 13, 2011 at 8:25 am
Bez,
As a last option, I’ve individually enabled the embed option for all for every video. I can access the embed link even when I’m logged out. Hope this works, at least.
Cheers!
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November 13, 2011 at 11:12 am
Solution for anyone who wants to download a copy of these:
1. Get the videos directly from Marker:
http://gorgomancy.net/azertuyop/video/ (better quality, .flv format, convertible to anything)
2. English subtitles, as noted by a commenter on worldscinema, are here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/l91aw8
Thanks to JAFB for all the help (and patience).
Bez
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November 16, 2011 at 3:48 am
Thanks Bez… I think the srt files are missing for episodes 12 and 13 though… anybody know where they might be found???
Ian
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December 3, 2012 at 7:14 pm
Truly an extraordinary series. The collective intelligence , the mere recording of it, is like finding ancient tablets were we find inscriptions of mind processes that enable us, like one of the interviewees says, to “know ourselves”, to try to figure out the labyrinth, and finally take that third path that leads to the mysterious unknown. As a filmmaker I welcome the abundance of ideas, the brainstorming and the innumerable seeds planted through this, and other Marker’s works, thanks for making it available, I was unaware of its existence.
Sunithaya
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January 1, 2013 at 5:15 pm
Right you are, Sunithaya. Essential stuff. My pleasure.
RIP Marker.
Thanks and a happy new year.
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December 1, 2019 at 7:27 pm
Since these comments were posted, a high quality DVD set on two discs has been issued by the enterprising Icarus label, which previously released a number of the important Jean Rouch documentaries.The viewer has the option of watching the original French version or the English one where the narration is by Bob Peck.There is a minor defect for the last few minutes of one episode where the translation of two French speakers suddenly disappears and there are no captions.
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December 1, 2019 at 7:59 pm
Thank you for the valuable information, Lawrence!
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