The Film: La Jetee (1962)
The Principles: Chris Marker (Writer/Director). Jean Négroni. Hélène Chatelain. Davos Hanich. Jacques Ledoux.
The Premise: After World War III leaves France ravaged, a prisoner in residence underneath the Palais de Chaillot is subjected to time-travel experiments, where he’s sent to the past and finds himself face to face with certain images and events that have haunted him since he was a child.
Is It Good: It is- very much so, actually. It’s a slow burn and there were stretches of it that felt rather inaccessible, but that’s completely due to the format. It’s not a film in traditional terms – instead it’s a 28-minute montage of still images edited together with music and a narrative voice-over. It gives the whole thing a sort of literary quality – it’s a photography book brought to life, essentially (and, funnily enough, they – whomever “they” are – actually published a photo book with the images used in this film after the fact) – and you may find that that’s not necessarily the easiest thing to give yourself over to. But it’s worth it, and it’s gorgeous. Shot completely in black and white, some of the photos are stunning and there’s a dreamy sort of ethereal quality to a lot of them when paired with the cool, relaxed, almost hypnotic sound of Négroni’s voice-over work.
It does take a little patience, however, as sometimes the voice can get a bit too relaxed and there are the occasional “too many pictures of the same thing” thing going on, but these are minor quibbles, especially given the fact that it’s not a huge time investment and the story – once you break the curve of the…flowery prose (for lack of a better term) and can get on board with it – is a complete and total mind fuck once you get the entire thing and can put it to some context. Not only is it an extremely tight and demonstrably NON-complicated time-travel story (hey – turns out it IS possible!) but it turns into this really potent (if small) examination of death and fate and destiny and how you can’t escape it. For being such a small movie, it has some big ideas and it carries them around and serves them to the audience almost effortlessly.
Yeah, it’s good.
Is It Worth A Look: Definitely. And there‘s no better time than now as it‘s on Instant, and again, it‘s only 28 minutes long. If THAT‘S not an option then Criterion released a DVD of it (paired with another of Marker’s films – Sans Soleil) and you could always get your hands on that book. Either way, it’s definitely something that anybody reading this site is going to be interested in seeing.
Random Anecdotes: This is the kind of rare, special shit that makes me wanna just dry-hump the bejeezus out of Netflix Instant.
Cinematc Soulmates: 12 Monkeys. The Matrix. Inception. Back to the Future.
5 comments
“This is the kind of rare, special shit that makes me just want to dry hump the bejeezus out of Netflix instant.” Well done, sir.
It’s a little bit of an understatement to say that 12 Monkeys is a soulmate of La Jetée: arguably it’s one of the finest Hollywood remakes of a French film, incorporating and expanding on its source to make something that’s entirely its own movie, yet still recognisably hitting the same marks and concepts.
Chris Marker was partly inspired by Vertigo to make this film. The man and woman look at the rings on the trunk of a tree, just like Scottie and Madelyn do in the Muir Woods in Vertigo. Both films examine the nature of the past and how we cannot escape it. When Terry Gilliam remade La Jetee with 12 Monkeys, the two main characters actually watch Vertigo in a theater–the scene in Muir Woods. 12 Monkeys actually goes back to the inspiration for the film it is remaking. To me, the three films form this fascinating trilogy of time-travel films, each one looping back on itself and giving birth to the next.
Also, you forgot to mention the most stunning moment in the film. After becoming accustomed to watching stills for the entire short-film, there is one frame where we see actual see movement and it is jarring and stunning. It is when the woman blinks her eyes for a split second, and the stills become film–the past becomes present. Amazing stuff. Great MOD.
Does the Criterion disc have the original French audio? I have heard it is excellent.
I agree with Jared Rasic, every well done, Mr. Butler. This is what I visit CHUD for. Not the juvenile humor but the insight on excellent films I wouldn’t otherwise find. Thanks for the tip.
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