Category — La Jetée

La Jetée is a 30 minute movie done all from photo stills. I had never heard of it until this weekend.  It can be found on YouTube in its entirety.

La Jetée is not conventional in the sense that it films a photographic novel.  As them narrator states it “is the story of a man haunted by an image of his childhood.”  When he flashes back all he focuses on is the face of this woman:

The man or the protagonist of the film saw her at the pier at Orly Airport.  This is just before Paris is destroyed by a nuclear war in what is known as World War III.  The man experimented on by his captors, the head of which is known as the mad scientist. He was selected because, “this man was selected only because he was glued to an image of his past.” The whispers of the mad scientist and those working with him were a bit unnerving to listen to.  The flashbacks would show him with a woman doing simple things like strolling through the streets or at the market shopping.  “They have no memories, no plans,” says the narrator. “Time builds painlessly around them.” Other photos would be of him in bed with a white eye mask on and tubes running in out.
One section we are shown eleven still images of the sleeping woman, but in the twelfth, her eyes open, (only part not done in stills) and she stares up at him with love. This is a pivotal moment in the film.  They have made this true connection from random visits in time.

“Nothing tells memories from ordinary moments. Only afterwards do they claim remembrance, on account of their scars.”

The tests have gone so well that the scientists take him into the future.  At first the people he meets there don’t want him, but finally decide that he his worthy and give him the option.  However the man has decided that he would rather go back in time again, to see the woman that he loves.  The climax of the film is marked by this decision.  This decision to live out the rest of his days with her, leads to his death on the pier where this all began.  A still picture of him running toward her before the nuclear war happens all over again.  His death is inevitable.

This film did completely out of still photos, show the impact of a photograph.  Susan Sontag said that photographs have the power to resonate with the viewer.  This film proves this statement to be true.  With the use of a few hundred photos and the narrator’s voice, you are taken through time in this story.  It is short and has all the elements of a good story.  It contained an antagonist and a protagonist, the steady rise to the climax moment in the film, leading to the inevitable fall to the conclusion.  It is only 30 minutes long so I see no reason why everyone shouldn’t take time out to view it.  As a media maker and consumer this was important to see.  In my own works I see how strong a photograph can be.  I will keep that thought in mind as I create my own short narrative this week.

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