Film Review
La Jetée is the film
that first brought the avant-garde French filmmaker Chris Marker to the
attention of an international audience. It is a film like no
other, consisting almost entirely of black and white still photographs
accompanied by a compelling voiceover narration (the film exists in two
versions, one French, the other English). In style and impact, it
bears a striking similarity to Alain Resnais's earlier documentary
short on the Nazi Holocaust,
Nuit et brouillard (1955) -
perhaps not surprisingly as Marker worked on this film, having
belonged to the same group of
filmmakers as Resnais, the so-called Left Bank Movement, a more
politically conscious contemporary of the French New Wave. More
radical and willing to experiment than their counterparts in the
Nouvelle Vague, Marker and his cohorts (who included Agnès
Varda, Marguerite Duras and Jacques Demy, as well as Resnais) saw
cinema as an art form that offered limitless possibilities and devoted
much of their time and energies to overcoming its limiting
conventions.
La Jetée
is among Marker's most stylish and innovative films, although even this
would be surpassed by some of the director's subsequent achievements,
most notably
Sans soleil (1983), his justly
celebrated masterpiece.
Despite its modest 28 minute run-time,
La Jetée can hardly fail to
leave a lasting impression on anyone who watches it. Its
photomontage format may be unusual but it is a film that exerts an
extraordinarily tight grip on its spectator. It is not just a
piece of science-fiction (a genre that is quasi-non-existent in French
cinema). It is a film that reminds us of the importance of
memories, how they shape our lives and make us who we are. We
exist only as a muddled echo of our past experiences, and Marker's
compelling short film assures us that without memory we are nothing,
just an empty bubble of consciousness floating in eternity.
Although
La Jetée has
inspired several subsequent films - in particular Mamoru Oshii's
The Red Spectacles (1987) and Terry
Gilliam's
12 Monkeys (1995) -
it remains a startling cinematic one-off, a testament to Chris Marker's
ingenuity and determination to defy convention and explore the untapped
artististic possibilities of film.
© James Travers 2012
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Next Chris Marker film:
Sans soleil (1983)
Film Synopsis
The world lies in ruins in the aftermath of a nuclear war. A team of scientists realise
that the only way to save humanity from extinction is to send someone into the past or
the future to ask for help. After a number of failed experiments, the scientists
find one such man. His strong recollection of a childhood experience at Orly Airport makes
him the ideal subject.
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.