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La Jetée More at IMDbPro »La jetée (original title)
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| Index | 97 reviews in total |
137 out of 189 people found the following review useful:
Two viewings 30 years apart, 30 May 2003
Author:
Rick Lusso from United States
I first saw "La Jetee" in an introductory journalism class in the spring
of
1973. The class was large, so large, in fact, that it was held in an
auditorium rather than a conventional classroom. But when the film ended,
there was about 30 seconds of stone-silence before the
murmuring began. I sat slack-jawed and stunned and looked at Mary Ann, a
girl who sat next to me and who I was slowly becoming friends with, to
check
her reaction. She looked equally stunned.
Thirty years have passed and I have occasionally revisited that
moment.
Despite wanting to know Mary Ann better, I was too timid and never saw her
again after that semester ended and despite being stunned by the film, for
some reason, I had lost track of its title. All I remembered was a
haunting
scene at an airport with a guy wearing glasses. That was
it.
Just the other day and for no reason at all, I remembered the title "La
Jetee" out of the blue. The name just popped into my head. And, even
stranger, when I was checking the TV listings earlier today, I found that
"La Jetee" was being shown on the Sundance Channel later.
I just finished watching it and I am as slack-jawed and stunned as I was
thirty years ago. I guess the next logical thing will be to hear from
Mary
Ann. Just so long as I don't have to meet her at the airport.
79 out of 96 people found the following review useful:
The most heartbreakingly despairingly romantic science fiction film ever made., 31 October 2000
Author:
Alice Liddel (-darragh@excite.com) from dublin, ireland
'La Jetee' is a film about movement made up entirely of photographic stills.
Well, not entirely. For one transcendent moment the photo moves,
ironically at the film's stillest moment, as a woman we have starred at
sleeping in the sunny dawn wakes up. It is typical of Marker that a film
spanning centuries, millenia, war, torture, experimentation, murder, dreams,
time travel, destruction, love, joy, should have as its epiphanical moment
an elusive, delusive moment of utter calm, that of a sleeping woman opening
her eyes. In a film whose body is the stuff dreams are made on, such a
moment is truly cataclysmic.
Like all Marker's masterpieces, 'Jetee', ostensibly a work of
science-fiction, is profoundly concerned with Time, Memory and History.
Such abstracts treated in lesser hands have a tendency to become vague,
airy, removed from life; but Marker, the old leftist, always grounds his
philosophy, humanisises and politicises it.
'Jetee', though a short, is rich with ambiguity and irony - the freedom of
dreams, to reinvent the past, to escape from circumstances, is exploited by
a totalitarian oligarchy, and ultimately fatal for the dreamer. Such is our
desperate need to dream, to escape, forget/reinvent, that it is easy to
forget that the Man's relationship with the Woman is a phantom, an entire
history blown out of a brief glimpse, like that Baudelaire poem where he is
stunned by a brief glimpse of a woman he never sees again.
It is this act the tyrants need, this gesture of recreation - by embodying
what never happened, by making real or factual what is ultimately desire, he
has destroyed history; this paves the way for the vision of 3000, where
history is destroyed, and along with it humanity; a Houhnyhm-land of
disembodied intelligence. This idea of the death of history, of the victory
of post-modernity, would be most eloquently in Marker's chef d'oeuvre, 'Sans
Soleil', which was shown with this film at the screening I attended.
But Marker's great achievement here is his creation of the future as a
regression, as a descent into medievalism, part-Les Miserables,
part-Occupation, with all the signs of French progress and pretension
destroyed, with all Haussman's modernity and prosperity run to earth by
nuclear contamination, the survivors living in sewers with rats, as their
ancestors once did.
Marker's vision is terrifying in its mixture of ruined symmetry and a
sickening moral blackness, the general silence punctuated by impenetrable
whispers and noises - this is one of the most frightening soundtracks I've
ever heard. This medievalism also means a bypassing of the intellect, of
literal Enlightenment, and back to a kind of spiritual murk, with pastiche
sacred music flooding the film, and parodies of religious kitsch obtruding
(the godlike light seeping into dense interiors; religious slogans; the
compositions of survivors like beatified saints) on the relics of
civilisation, the graffiti, the now-impenetrable codes.
This chaos is contrasted with the Paris of the dream, especially in the
museum scene, even more chilling with its statues looking like petrified
relics from a volcanic disaster; the mute, stuffed animals warning humans of
their fate; the exquisite composition of architecture, trapping the couple
in a web of order, boxes, classification, obsolescence, the doomed attempts
by mankind to order the universe.
yet this dream is so moving because it offers love, connection, gardens,
talk, dreams, Paris, even if they are illusory. because, although this is a
dense, difficult, allusive, modern film, it also illuminates a simple,
ancient truth 'In the midst of life, we are in death'. As Morrissey once
responded, 'Etcetera'.
44 out of 51 people found the following review useful:
Timeless work of art, 7 February 2006
Author:
Superunknovvn from Austria, Vienna
"La jetée" is a million years ahead of its time. To make a movie in
1962 about World War III, time traveling and a distant future that is
still genuinely disturbing and not in the least outdated comes close to
a miracle.
Here's a short synopsis of the story: After World War III Paris is
lying in tatters. The earth has been contaminated and survivors of the
war have to live underground imprisoned by the victorious nation (it's
never said explicitly which nation that is, but they are talking
German). Scientists are looking for a way to secure the survival of
mankind by exploring the possibilities of time traveling. In the
process one of the prisoners, who has a strong connection to the past
because of a recurring dream of his childhood, serves as their guinea
pig. As the experiments go on the time traveler falls in love with a
woman from the past and comes face to face with the childhood memory
he's been obsessed with all his life.
The story might have a familiar ring to you. It's basically the same
story Terry Gilliam used in "12 Monkeys". But while "12 Monkeys" is a
great movie, ultimately it will be "La jetée" that will stand the test
of time (no pun intended). Director/screenwriter Chris Marker's
approach is amazingly clever and effective. His movie is a sequence of
beautiful black and white photographs with somebody narrating the
story. The pictures and the perfect music make the whole thing seem
like a documentary on World War II and give the movie a disturbingly
realistic feel. Marker never makes the mistake to show too much. The
destruction of Paris, the experiments and the future are all hinted at
rather vaguely in the pictures and in the narration. A lot is left to
our imagination and when The Man, as the main character is simply
called, drifts through time it almost seems like a feverish dream to
the viewer, too. What's more concrete is the relationship of The Man
and The Woman and the contrast between the short untroubled moments The
Man spends in the past and his enslavement in the present. Marker
concentrates on those aspects and almost shrugs the time traveling off
as a negligibility and the result is nothing short of amazing.
With its 26 minutes running time "La jetée" accomplishes more than some
epic trilogies do. It remains a classy work of art that looks fresher
than any other movie from the 60's that I've ever seen and in 50 years
from now it will not have lost any of its appeal, either.
47 out of 63 people found the following review useful:
stunning, 12 March 2004
Author:
dbdumonteil
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.
31 out of 40 people found the following review useful:
Enigmatic and thought provoking, 10 February 2003
Author:
Howard Schumann from Vancouver, B.C.
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
The Third World War is over. Paris has been destroyed. The Earth is no
longer habitable. People cluster in underground caves as scientists conduct
experiments. The film explains, "The only hope for survival lay in time: a
hole in time through which to send food, medicines, sources of energy. The
aim of the experiments was to send emissaries into time to summon the past
and the future to the aid of the present." A man (Davos Hanich) "volunteers"
because he is haunted by an image from his childhood. In his mind he sees a
woman (Helene Chatelain) standing at the edge of a jetty at the Orly Airport
while a man runs toward her… a shot rings out…the man falls…dying. The
volunteer travels back in time, then forward, then back again. Images morph
into one another, haunting, frightening. It is over in 29 minutes.
Using black and white still photography (except for one shot) and a
voice-over narration, Chris Marker's 1962 film, La Jetee, is one of the most
enigmatic and thought provoking science fiction films ever made. The film
takes us into the mind of a man and looks at memory, loss, dreams, and
destiny. Sent back to try to save the human race, he and the woman meet
again. He sees the world as it was before the war: with "real children", "a
real bedroom", and "real birds". The narrator speaks: "They are without
memories, without plans. Time builds itself painlessly around them. Their
only landmarks are the flavor of the moment they are living and the markings
on the walls." They fall in love. She calls him "my ghost". Is this
happening only in his mind or is he reassembling the past? They go for walks
and to a strange museum filled with mounted representations of extinct
animals. Then it stops.
Having perfected their technique, the scientists now send the man into the
future. Human beings have regained the Earth. He tells his story to them.
The future beings give him a power supply to take back to restart humanity's
industries. Now he is expendable, he suspects he is going to be killed. The
people from the future visit him, offering a sanctuary in their own time.
Instead, he chooses to go back in time to the woman he loves, and then meets
his strange destiny in a moment of dark beauty that will remain with you
forever.
21 out of 23 people found the following review useful:
A unique, powerful and visually stunning experimental film, 16 February 2001
Author:
tsmiljan from tampa, florida
If you can find this rare film, you must see it. Unique in film history,
this experimental short film consists of a series of still shots tied
together by narration. It is the story of a post-apocalyptic Earth and
time
travel. Each still shot is a work of art, and the plot is compelling. A
man
with a strong memory of a past event witnessed as a small child (a person
being shot at an airport), is periodically sent back into that pre-war
period by "experimenters" with devious purposes. While visiting the past,
the hero falls in love with a woman from that past.
Watch for the one and only scene that contains any movement and natural
sounds (birds in the background, while the woman wakes up next to her
lover). Coming in the midst of the relentless still shots, it is one of
the
most sublime moments in all cinema. You are doing yourself a disservice if
you do not see this film.
28 out of 39 people found the following review useful:
Extremely Effective in its Subtlety., 24 September 2005
Author:
myphx from Ft. Lauderdale
The first time I saw this movie it was on a local educational TV
channel (PBS was barely starting) in 1969. I was a youngster and it
made such an indelible impression that I remembered it all these years.
Luckily, to my surprise I discovered a copy recently at a video rental
store.
The movie is only approximately 30 minutes in length and is composed of
black and white still photography (except for one scene, where they
show a mans eye blinking). It is a powerful depiction of the end of the
world, human love and memory. The French narration adds to the poetic
subtlety and drama. To my dismay, I heard there was a new DVD version
available, but with English narration. Hopefully, the original French
version will be made available, as it seems to add so much more to the
dramatic effect of the movie.
To the average movie viewer, this film would be best described as
avant-garde in nature. It is a prime example of how science fiction and
drama can be produced with nuance and subtleties, rather than overuse
of technological effects and gratuitous titillation and violence.
21 out of 28 people found the following review useful:
experimental, elegaic, profound, beautiful, and mysterious, 19 November 2002
Author:
pyamada from chicago
This is one of the most stunning short films ever made. Marker has pieced together an oblique, sci-fi setting for marvelous still photography; when there is movement, it is a cause for joy! Everyone who is a cineast should see this film: it's that good and it's that important!
16 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
Chicken or the Egg?, 26 October 2002
Author:
thefensk from North Carolina
I note that most of the comments I've seen have been written by people who
saw 12 Monkeys first and then chose somehow to see La Jetee.
Comparisons are useless beyond the basic feel of the story.
When I first saw 12 Monkeys I didn't know its relationship to La Jetee, a
film I had not seen in 25 years.
Yet, I recognized this relationship almost immediately, even though I
could
not remember the name of the movie. This I realized through the feel of
the
story ... down to the very end.
In many ways the short film was much more stimulating ... even though I
had
forgotten the name of the film I had never forgotten the images or the
impressions it made upon me. I guess that's strange, but as I recall I
saw
it at Rice University as a part of a film festival back in the 60s.
Granted, films must sustain themselves somewhat through the years to
maintain their value as true art, but one must always remember the context
of the film's original audience.
I wonder now if the dependence on stills to portray the story had any
influence on Ken Burns? Heh ... he's made a reputation on the same
technique.
My point ... accept both movies on their own merits.
15 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
Chillingly controlled to stick in the mind., 6 September 2005
Author:
Polaris_DiB from United States
One way movies tend to be memorable is when a certain image they create
is so powerful it sticks right into the mind and refuses to leave. This
is a film created to do just that, and one method is to remove a level
of the motion to create haunting images that stay static on the screen
until they're burned on the cornea. Memory, however, is not just
visual, and as if the film needed any help, the disturbingly saturated
music and sound helps implant everything in this movie until it's not
to be forgotten.
A man is haunted throughout his life by the image of a beautiful woman,
and the death he witnessed after seeing her. Soon afterward, a bomb
hits Paris and sends the survivors scurrying underground to survive
nuclear fall-out. A scientist then uses the man's clinging focus on the
past memory of the beauty and death to send him through time to try to
prevent the bomb.
This is not a movie that needs to be remarked upon by saying, "Every
frame is like a photograph!" because every frame is a photograph.
However, it keeps away from being considered merely a slide-show by the
emotive use of sound and narration and the surreal look into time and
memory, a look that's quite adequate for truly representing the sort of
imbalance and dizziness that would be created by time-travel. It
recreates the sort of objective detail of memories wherein the movement
through space and time is certainly recognized as your own, but your
inability to control it since it's already been done makes you sort of
an outside spectator to your own actions. That, I believe, is the focus
that drives this narrative along and it's done so well, it's difficult
to imagine anyone not being sucked into it.
--PolarisDiB
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