La Jetée (1962)

The story of a man forced to explore his memories in the wake of World War III's devastation, told through still images.

Director:

Chris Marker

Stars:

Étienne Becker, Jean Négroni, Hélène Chatelain

2 wins.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Jean Négroni	...	Narrator (voice) (as Jean Negroni)
Hélène Chatelain	...	The Woman
Davos Hanich	...	The Man
Jacques Ledoux	...	The Experimenter
André Heinrich
Jacques Branchu
Pierre Joffroy
Étienne Becker	...	(as Etienne Becker)
Philbert von Lifchitz
Ligia Branice	...	A woman from the future (as Ligia Borowcyk)
Janine Klein	...	A woman from the future
William Klein	...	A man from the future (as Bill Klein)
Germano Facetti	...	(as Germano Faccetti)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
James Kirk	...	Narrator (voice)

Storyline

Time travel, still images, past, present and future and the aftermath of World War III. The tale of a man, a slave, sent back and forth, in and out of time, to find a solution to the world's fate, to replenish its decreasing stocks of food, medicine and energies, and in doing so, resulting in a perpetual memory of a lone female, life, death and past events that are recreated on an airport jetty.

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Plot Keywords:

memory | airport | still frame technique | time traveller | boy | 

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Genres:

Short | Drama | Romance | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French German

Release Date:

16 February 1962 (France)

Also Known As:

La Jetée

Filming Locations:

Galerie De Paléontologie Et D'Anatomie Comparée Du Muséum National D'Histoire Naturelle - 2 Rue Buffon, Paris 5, Paris, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Argos Films, Radio-Télévision Française (RTF)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

28 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Around the 8:40 marker, when two scientists in the background are speaking German, if you listen carefully, you can hear one of them slightly laugh after almost mispronouncing the word 'muscular contraction'.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: [English version] This is the story of a man marked by an image of his childhood. The violent scene which upset him, and whose meaning he was to grasp only years later, happened on the main pier at Orly, Paris Airport, sometime before the outbreak of World War Three.

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Crazy Credits

The opening credits do not describe it as a film, but "un photo-roman."

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Connections

Referenced in We Bought a Zoo (2011)

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Soundtracks

The Girl (Prologue)
(uncredited)
Music by Trevor Duncan
Plays during the park scene
Boosey & Hawkes Ltd

User Reviews

Timeless work of art

"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.