La Jetee
is a science-fiction short film made in 1962 by Chris Marker. It is
constructed mainly from black-white photos, though a little amount of
live footage has also been used in the production.
Located
in the postapocalyptic, postwar Paris, people live underground trying
to solve the mystery of time travelling in order to save the world
from Third World War which destroyed their times and lives.
Marker's
short tells a story of a man (Davos Hanich) who's the subject of
scientific experiments; being send to the past he discovers the truth
about his memories and what he really saw as a child.
It is
not easy to produce an interesting and apllying short movie, though
Marker managed to do that. His story is no longer than 28 minutes but
it makes the viewer stop for a while and think about what they saw.
Only with the use of photography the director succeded in showing
strong emotions and convincing feelings. Vallows-Dancy's quotation
states it clearly:
“Director
Chris Marker manages to evoke an atmosphere of sheer sadness and
dread, interestingly enough, through the use of little more than
still images, which says a lot about his talents as a filmmaker.”
(Vallows-Dancy, 2012)
Though
1960s.might be considered as multifarious times of the
cinematography, La
Jetee
stands out with its original plot and all the twists of the story.
Unfortunately,
even though
“The
story packed the biggest punch, the ending a real kicker.” (Black,
1999) is
a correct and really convincing statement,
in
contemporary times La
Jetee's
script is nothing beyond well known.
XXI
century is the time of various topics and sometimes bizzare ideas; it
became more difficult to impress the audience. Movie directors race
and compete with each other in order to catch the viewers attention.
A logical and nitely made series of photos put into a movie is not
going to impress people who seek for block-busters and colourful
action movies.
Nonetheless,
amongs adventure-cinema seekers there are still people who can
appreciate and respect the less-popular production of the
cinematography, notice their values and praise them. Marker
undoubtfully proves that a successful movie doesn't have to be a
block-buster with a twisted story and special-effects. The
masterpiece of photography and movie editing has been embedded in
that 28 minutes long movie.
Battleship
Pretension states a very valuable point:
“This
is, ultimately, what makes a series of stills so effective – they
feel alive, but tied to the past, tied to a fate that has already
been set.” (Battleship Pretension). Photography
has always been considered as a link to the past. Sometimes a very
personal connection to events that occurred; Marker couldn't have had
used a better way of visualizing a story about time travelling.
Undoubtfuly,
Chris Marker's La
Jetee
is a story with a very up-to-date plot, shown in an old-school way,
that influenced many contemporary productions and movie directors.
Bibliography:
- Quotes:* Vallows-Dancy, Allan (2012) online source: http://2or3thingsiknowaboutfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/pierla-jetee-1962-chris-marker.html* Black, Louis (1999) online source: http://www.filmvault.com/filmvault/austin/l/lajete1.html* Battleship pretension, online source: http://battleshippretension.com/?p=6016
- Stills:
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