La Jetee

La Jetee
1962 - France
Directed By Chris Marker



SYNOPSIS

A man from a post-apocalyptic Paris is a guinea pig for a time travel experiment. He heads back in time to his youth. He remembers seeing a beautiful woman when he saw a man getting shot at an airport. Her beauty left a lasting impression on him and he seeks her out.

MY THOUGHTS

A short film that was made with more intelligence than most feature films.

The 28 minute film is told in a series of photographs with a narrator, music and a few sound effects. It's bare bones storytelling done very effectively. Chris Marker tells a deep and moving tale with a limited palate.
It never once feels like you're back in second grade watching a boring filmstrip... though its done in essentially the same style.

The story is well crafted and made perfectly ambiguous. You don't know if the man is actually going through time. It may just be in his head and he's reliving this important memory in new ways.

The short film was remade and greatly beefed up into a feature as Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys.
This is the root of that amazing film.