Time travel, still images, a past, present and future and the aftermath of World War III. This is Chris Marker's (b. 1921) tale of a man, a slave, sent back and forth, in and out of time, to find a solution to the world's fate. To replenish its decreasing stocks of food, medicine and energies, and in doing so, resulting in a perpetual memory of a lone female, death and past events that are recreated on an airports jetée.
Having war's victors, the dominate intellectuals, and its slaves, living underground in the Parisian tunnels that now constitute post nuclear life. Picking guinea pigs for travel, where madness and death are the past results of this experiment, to find this ravaged presents' solution. It is here that memory is exploited.
With the use of black and white photography, using a 35mm Pentax Spotmatic single lens reflex camera, as its attribute to this visual montage's narrative projecting the grim, dark surreal world of this lifeless underground world, that in contrast, depicts, too, in black & white stills, a vibrant past that only memory can now dictate.
Based around the principle of paradox, assisted by the future to replenish the past, only if the future may be reached can the past create its own future. The (boy's) past that intermingles with the present-future (the man's) and its coming together of destiny. Each shot's length is destined by the coinciding narrative as told by the storyteller, and too, depending on the present circumstance for the need to transcend the plot; some quick bursts of shots of around two to three seconds to a more sedate five second shots and the occasional longer still set to a background of light classical music to further enhance the mood of trepidation and hope.
La jetée is a superb work of art and has tones of sorrow, regret, happiness, love, life and death all transcending from the images of this photoplay. This is science fiction, as too, the extremely intelligent, plot driven Twelve Monkeys (1995) is also a reborn La jetée, from the mind of Terry Gilliam, and is much recommended in the wake of viewing its original source here, via the visual of photography in the style of storyboarding. Intriguing as it is; this may seem minimalist, experimental art but goes much deeper as the imagery and plot unfolds. La jetée becomes the epitaph for the destruction of the human soul, with its clashes of life and death and consequence and actions, man has reached a point where there can be no turning back.
Having war's victors, the dominate intellectuals, and its slaves, living underground in the Parisian tunnels that now constitute post nuclear life. Picking guinea pigs for travel, where madness and death are the past results of this experiment, to find this ravaged presents' solution. It is here that memory is exploited.
With the use of black and white photography, using a 35mm Pentax Spotmatic single lens reflex camera, as its attribute to this visual montage's narrative projecting the grim, dark surreal world of this lifeless underground world, that in contrast, depicts, too, in black & white stills, a vibrant past that only memory can now dictate.
Based around the principle of paradox, assisted by the future to replenish the past, only if the future may be reached can the past create its own future. The (boy's) past that intermingles with the present-future (the man's) and its coming together of destiny. Each shot's length is destined by the coinciding narrative as told by the storyteller, and too, depending on the present circumstance for the need to transcend the plot; some quick bursts of shots of around two to three seconds to a more sedate five second shots and the occasional longer still set to a background of light classical music to further enhance the mood of trepidation and hope.
La jetée is a superb work of art and has tones of sorrow, regret, happiness, love, life and death all transcending from the images of this photoplay. This is science fiction, as too, the extremely intelligent, plot driven Twelve Monkeys (1995) is also a reborn La jetée, from the mind of Terry Gilliam, and is much recommended in the wake of viewing its original source here, via the visual of photography in the style of storyboarding. Intriguing as it is; this may seem minimalist, experimental art but goes much deeper as the imagery and plot unfolds. La jetée becomes the epitaph for the destruction of the human soul, with its clashes of life and death and consequence and actions, man has reached a point where there can be no turning back.