La Jetée (1962) La jetée (original title)

Director:

Chris Marker

Writer:

Chris Marker (screenplay)

Release Date:

16 February 1962 (France)

Genre:

Short | Drama | Romance | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Time travel, still images, a past, present and future and the aftermath of World War III. The tale of a man...

Plot Keywords:

Memory | Time Travel | Future | Childhood | Childhood Memory

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Jean Négroni	...	Narrator (voice)
Hélène Chatelain	...	The Woman
Davos Hanich	...	The Man
Jacques Ledoux	...	The Experimenter
André Heinrich
Jacques Branchu
Pierre Joffroy
Étienne Becker
Philbert von Lifchitz
Ligia Branice	...	A woman from the future (as Ligia Borowczyk)
Janine Klein	...	A woman from the future
William Klein	...	A man from the future (as Bill Klein)
Germano Facetti		(as Germano Faccetti)

Directed by
Chris Marker

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Chris Marker		screenplay and dialogue

Produced by
Anatole Dauman	....	producer

Cinematography by
Jean Chiabaut
Chris Marker

Film Editing by
Jean Ravel

Sound Department
Antoine Bonfanti	....	sound editor
Antoine Bonfanti	....	sound re-recording mixer

Production Companies

• Argos Films

Distributors

• Dianafilmi (1984) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Aurora (2006) (Brazil) (DVD)
• BijouFlix Releasing (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• BuyIndies.com Inc. (USA)
• Criterion Collection, The (2007) (2012) (USA) (DVD)
• Mainostelevisio (MTV) (1967) (Finland) (TV)
• Moore Video
• New Yorker Films (2003) (USA) (subtitled)
• Ripley's Home Video (2007) (Italy) (DVD) (boxed set)
• Sundance Channel (2003) (USA) (TV)
• YLE Teema (2010) (Finland) (TV)

Special Effects

• DSA

Also Known As:

"La jetée" - France (original title)
"The Pier" - International (English title) (informal literal title)

Runtime:

28 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-8 (1984) | UK:PG | Singapore:PG | Argentina:Unrated | USA:Not Rated | Finland:K-16 (1966)

Filming Locations:

Orly Airport, Orly, Val-de-Marne, France

Company:

Argos Films

Trivia:

Comprises still shot photography only, except for a shot of the woman opening and blinking her eyes.

Quotes:

[last lines]
Narrator:He ran toward her. And when he recognized the man who'd trailed him from the camp, he realized there was no escape out of time, and that that moment he'd been granted to see as a child, and that had obsessed him forever after... was the moment of his own death.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in La Puppe (2003)

Soundtrack:

Vastness of Space

stunning

In 1995, Terry Gilliam made one of the finest movies in the nineties: "Twelve Monkeys". To explain how he made this awesome movie, he openly declared that he drew his inspiration from a French short film: "La Jetée". It is true that the 2 opus have similarities: both present a devastated earth caused by man's madness, survivors who take refuge in underground rooms and try to improve their grueling living conditions and especially both feature a jaded and manipulated main character.

A short film that is a reflection about time, happiness and love, entirely composed of static shots, "la jetée" is a powerful and mesmerizing work and it may appear as a cornerstone in French cinema. 42 years after its release, it kept all its strength and has not aged a bit. The quality of the editing, the photography and the commentary add to the success of Chris Marker's work.

Highly recommended and the influence of Chris Marker's short film on "Twelve Monkeys" shows well a thing: French cinema inspired a great number of American movies.