(La Jetée Poster, 1962)
La Jetée is a 1962 French science-fiction short film by directed Chris Marker. It is constructed with still photos, with the exception of a few small parts with moving image, which are very hard to catch if you're not paying full attention.
(La Jetée, 1962)
It tells the story of a post-nuclear war experiment on time travel, focusing on a man and his experience in the experiment, and how his childhood trauma of watching a man die has influenced his time travel.
The short film plays extremely well thanks to its use of its atmospheric soundtrack. Its very minimal, but this works very well in the context. Since focusing on the narration should be your true goal whilst watching this film, you pay attention to the sound work on a subconscious level, in a way you would in everyday life. Its a genius strategy to not only keep you engaged, but to keep you in discomfort as you wonder what happens next.
"The soundtrack's texture is similarly sparse, and the fluid montage leads the viewer into the sensation of watching moving images. Until, that is, an extraordinary epiphany when an image genuinely does move: the man's sleeping lover opens her eyes." (Timeout, 2016)
As timeout states, the soundtrack makes the movies still images come alive, giving an illusion of movement when obviously nothing is moving physically on the screen. It then, in a sense, jars you when the woman opens her eyes, making you more aware of the movie as you wait for something else to move.
(La Jetée, 1962)
Aside from the editing, this film is an interesting take on the time travel genre. He doesn't go back to a specific time, but only the times in which the girl he saw at The Jetty has been in.
"This time he is close to her, he speaks to her. She welcomes him without surprise. 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." (La Jetée Script, 1962)
She seems to remember him each time, as if these scenes are playing constantly, even as he is bought back into the present. Time doesn't change her in each sequence, she stays the same.
"The girl is protected (the statues, the museum, her slumber) by time. She is the face of time and, above all, the very content of time (its secret, its truth)." (Jean-Louis Schefer, 1995)
She doesn't die, She doesn't falter, yet the man in this story does as he comes in and out of these sequences. In a way the girl has killed him, as he only wants to see her while he is threatened with death. She is also the reason the death at The Jetty (revealed to be his own by the end), haunts him through his life.
Bibliography:
Images:
La Jetée Poster. (1962). [image] Available at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f7/La_Jetee_Poster.jpg/220px-La_Jetee_Poster.jpg [Accessed 11 Jan. 2018].
La Jetée. (1962). [Film] Directed by C. Marker. France: Argos Films.
Quotes:
Jean-Louis Schefer. (1995). On La Jetée by Jean-Louis Schefer ~ Chris Marker. [online] Available at: https://chrismarker.org/chris-marker-2/jean-louis-schefer-on-la-jete/ [Accessed 15 Jan. 2018].
Marker, C. (1962). Chris Marker : La Jetée Script. [online] Markertext.com. Available at: http://www.markertext.com/la_jetee.htm [Accessed 11 Jan. 2018].
Timeout. (2016). La Jetée. [online] Available at: https://www.timeout.com/london/film/la-jetee [Accessed 15 Jan. 2018].
