Skip to main content

CGAA Unit 4 Storytelling: La Jetée 31/01/2012



Summary:
Simple but stunning - Chris Marker’s seminal La Jetée is a short, experimental Science-fiction film. World War III has left Paris in ruins. Deep underground, scientists search for a way to secure mankind’s future by utilising time-travel.

The film employs numerous innovative techniques which help to drive the bold narrative – most notably, the film is made up entirely of atmospheric still images. Influencing countless circles of science-fiction culture, La Jetée remains as fresh, thought-provoking and beautiful now, as it did in 1962.

Analysis:
“La Jetée‘s virtue is its immediate, haunting ability to evoke the emotions of love and desire; its use of photomontage poignantly conjures up the frozen moments that constitute memory. As the man remembers his past, and the woman, he relives it – never really sure if he is sent or if he is dreaming – one snapshot literally coming alive with his subjective colouring. The familiar SF framework is merely a narrative hook by which Marker hangs this essay on Inner Space.” (Sellars 2005)

Simon S. (2005) Retrospecto: La Jetée http://www.ballardian.com/la-jetee (Accessed on 30.01.12).


Release:
1962



Director:

Chris Marker


Screenplay by:

Chris Marker


Produced by:

Anatole Dauman


Genre/subgenre:

Science-Fiction, Experimental


Country:

France

Cast:

Jean Négroni, Hélène Chatelain, Davos Hanich, Jacques Ledoux


Selected Director Filmography:
Sans Soleil, A.K, A Grin Without a Cat, La jetée, One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich, 2084, 'Les Astronautes


Related Films:

Twelve Monkeys, Blade Runner, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Memento,

Comments