Saw La Jetée during class last week for my Media Aesthetics and Analysis class. A French classic made in 1962, its poignancy and its impactful images stole my heart right from the very beginning.

La Jetee

La Jetée is unconventional in the sense that it uses photo-montages, a simple soundtrack and a sparse (yet powerful) narration to tell its story. Absent are the usual fancy camera moves or quick edits and special effects. In place is a series of photographs, in black and white, freezing a particular moment, a particular motion, a particular personality, weaving a melancholic story of a world of destruction and war, memory and destiny. It’s the best illustration of what “less is more” means. Stripped to the bare essentials of cinematography, it had more to show, and to tell, in its full 28 minutes, than the usual 2-hour blockbuster.

The movie portrays a post-apocalyptic world, where humans were driven underground because of the destruction we have brought upon ourselves. Scientist then designed experiments to send people backward and forward in time to search for a way out to save themselves. Sounds like a science fiction story, but it is really more than that. With the technology, our lead character had a chance to go back in time and romance a woman he remembered from his childhood in the pre-war years, a chance to share little moments here and there of the peaceful past with the woman whose image was clearly etched in his memory, a woman whom he knows will eventually die. But there’s a little twist to the movie at the end, of which its beauty I will not reveal here.

Found out that 12 Monkeys was actually inspired by La Jetée. No wonder the story is similar. But La Jetée is by far superior. But then again, it’s probably an unfair comparison, since they are essentially different in the way they tell the story.

I am entranced by this movie. Must get my DVD copy. But read online that a french copy is hard to find. And I don’t want a dodgy English dubbing. sigh. Maybe I’ll go steal the reel that the college has here mwahaha. (yup, and have no way of viewing it later. right.)

“Nothing sorts out memories from ordinary moments. Later on they do claim remembrance when they show their scars. That face he had seen was to be the only peacetime image to survive the war. Had he really seen it? Or had he invented that tender moment to prop up the madness to come?

The sudden roar, the woman’s gesture, the crumpling body, and the cries of the crowd on the jetty blurred by fear.

Later, he knew he had seen a man die.”

I am so inspired. Feel like making a film myself too. sigh.