La Jetee

This film is not currently available on DVD. Film Description This classic science-fiction short was the brilliant inspiration for Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys. A man is taken from the future on a terrifying journey back to his childhood. His ability to make contact with a woman he once glimpsed may be humanity's last hope - and also his nemesis. Told almost entirely in stills, La Jetee is one of the most admired fables about cinema as a time machine.

Film Details Director Chris Marker Starring Ligia Branice, Helene Chatelain   Country France Language English narration   Year 1962

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Review by anonymous on 4th November 1999

The paradigm of all cinema. Absolutely brilliant.

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Review by Graeme Hobbs on 2nd February 2004

Simply one of the most influential films ever made. And yes, it is less than half an hour long and told almost entirely in stills. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the film documents the attempts of an underground community of scientists to contact other ages through a loophole in time in order to revitalize their dying society. They use people with particularly strong images from the past for their experiments, forcing them to try and re-enter that moment. The film is admirable for many reasons - its brilliantly evocative use of sound, its editing, the beauty and power of its photography, the concept itself even. And as for communicating the painful, hollowing loneliness of the moment of waking when you realize that the person you have been with was only in a dream and that they are entirely lost to you, it has never been better filmed. Never.

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Review by Carol on 20th October 2001

A man is taken from the future on a terrifying journey back to his childhood. His ability to make contact with a woman he once glimpsed in an airport may be humanity’s last hope – and also his nemesis. Only 35 minutes long, just a succession of still pictures with a commentary, but one of the most satisfying films ever made. It was the inspiration for Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys. It will leave you thinking for years, wanting to see it again, check the details. Marker used stills because he couldn’t see how films inexorably advancing at 24 frames a second could possibly be expected to express real time travel.

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Review by anonymous on 1st December 1999

The film is pure visual poetry

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This film is part of the following Customer Film Lists

Out Of Time by Ezekiel Lee

Parellel universe? Time travel? This is a comprehensive international list of the top 14 great films which ask the question "What if?"

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