Cinema
La Jetée
Chris Marker · 1962
Synopsis
After a third world war, Paris lies in ruins and the survivors live underground. A prisoner there keeps an obsessive childhood memory: on the pier at Orly airport, a woman's face and, the same day, a man's death. Because of this image, scientists choose him for time-travel experiments. He reaches the world before the war, finds there the woman of his memory and becomes close to her.
Context
The film is made almost entirely of still black-and-white photographs; only a passage of about ten seconds, on the face of the woman waking, is filmed in motion. Marker presented it as a story made of photographs. For Criterion, it is a tale of time made of motionless images. The film received the Prix Jean-Vigo, and an American feature film of 1995 drew its premise from it.
Who it is for
Twenty-eight minutes; a science-fiction tale told in still images, which can be watched in one sitting and watched again straight away.
Prizes and reception
Regarded by Criterion as one of the most influential science fiction films, published alongside a later film by the author.
Sources for this page 5
The pages consulted to check this page.