''La Jetée'' () is a 1962 French science fiction

featurette In the American film industry, a featurette is a kind of film that is shorter than a full-length feature, but longer than a short film. The term may refer to either of two types of content: a shorter film or a companion film. Medium-length film ...

directed by

Chris Marker Chris Marker (; 29 July 1921 – 29 July 2012) was a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and Essay#Film, film essayist. His best known films are ''La Jetée'' (1962), ''A Grin Without a Cat'' (1977) and ''S ...

and associated with the

Left Bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...

artistic movement. Constructed almost entirely from still photos, it tells the story of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel. It is 28 minutes long and shot in black and white. It won the

Prix Jean Vigo The Prix Jean Vigo is an award in the Cinema of France given annually since 1951 to a French film director in homage to Jean Vigo. It was founded by French writer Claude Aveline. Since 1960, the award is given to a director of a feature film and ...

for short film. The 1995 science fiction film ''

12 Monkeys ''12 Monkeys'' is a 1995 American science fiction film directed by Terry Gilliam, inspired by Chris Marker's 1962 short film ''La Jetée'', starring Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, and Brad Pitt, with Christopher Plummer and David Morse in sup ...

'' was inspired by and borrows several concepts directly from ''La Jetée''.

Plot

A man (Davos Hanich) is a prisoner in the aftermath of

World War III World War III or the Third World War, often abbreviated as WWIII or WW3, are names given to a hypothetical World war, worldwide large-scale military conflict subsequent to World War I and World War II. The term has been in use ...

in post-apocalyptic Paris, where survivors live underground in the ''

Palais de Chaillot The Palais de Chaillot () is a building at the top of the in the Trocadéro area in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, 16th ''arrondissement'' of Paris, France. For the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) ...

'' galleries. Scientists research

time travel Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...

, hoping to send test subjects to different time periods "to call past and future to the rescue of the present." They have difficulty finding subjects who can mentally withstand the shock of time travel. The scientists eventually settle upon the protagonist; his key to the past is a vague but obsessive memory from his pre-war childhood of a woman (

Hélène Châtelain Hélène Châtelain (28 December 1935 – 11 April 2020) was a French actress who appeared as "the woman" in Chris Marker's ''La Jetée'' (1962), and later worked with playwright Armand Gatti and Iossif Pasternak. She was also a translator, write ...

) he had seen on the observation platform ("the

jetty A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying somet ...

") at

Orly Airport Paris Orly Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Orly), commonly referred to as Orly , is one of two international airports serving the French capital, Paris, the other one being Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). It is located partially in Orly an ...

shortly before witnessing a startling incident there. He did not understand exactly what happened, but knew he had seen a man die. After several attempts, he reaches the pre-war period. He meets the woman from his memory, and they develop a romantic relationship. After his successful passages to the past, the experimenters attempt to send him into the far future. In a brief meeting with the technologically advanced people of the future, he is given a power unit sufficient to regenerate his own destroyed society. Upon his return, with his mission accomplished, he discerns that he is to be executed by his jailers. He is contacted by the people of the future, who offer to help him escape to their time permanently; but he asks instead to be returned to the pre-war time of his childhood, hoping to find the woman again. He is returned to the past, placed on the jetty at the airport, and it occurs to him that the child version of himself is probably also there at the same time. He is more concerned with locating the woman, and quickly spots her. However, as he rushes to her, he notices an agent of his jailers who has followed him and realizes the agent is about to kill him. In his final moments, he comes to understand that the incident he witnessed as a child, which has haunted him ever since, was his own death.

Cast

Jean Négroni Jean Négroni (4 December 1920 – 28 May 2005) was a French actor and theatre director particularly known for his voice work, such as his role as the narrator in ''La Jetée'' (1962). Biography Jean Négroni was educated in theater by Albert Cam ...

as Narrator *

as The Woman * Davos Hanich as The Man *

Jacques Ledoux Jacques Ledoux (1921 in Warsaw – 6 June 1988 in Brussels) was a Belgian cinema specialist, the first curator of the Royal Film Archive of Belgium (Cinémathèque royale de Belgique) from 1948 to 1988 and the founder of the Cinema Museum in ...

as The Experimenter * Ligia Branice as Woman From The Future * Janine Kleina as Woman From The Future * William Klein as Man From The Future

Production

''La Jetée'' is constructed almost entirely from optically printed photographs playing out as a

photomontage Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Sometimes the resulting composite image is photographed so that the final image ...

of varying rhythm. It contains only one brief shot (of the woman mentioned above sleeping and suddenly waking up) originating on a motion-picture camera, this due to the fact that Marker could only afford to hire one for an afternoon. The stills were taken with a

Pentax Spotmatic The Pentax Spotmatic refers to a family of 35mm single-lens reflex cameras manufactured by the Asahi Optical Co. Ltd., later known as Pentax Corporation, between 1964 and 1976. All Pentax Spotmatics used the M42 screw-thread lens mount which was ...

and the motion-picture segment was shot with a

35 mm 35 mm may refer to: * 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film * 35 mm movie film, a type of motion picture film stock * 35MM 35 mm may refer to: * 135 film, a type of still photography format ...

Arriflex The Arri Group () is a German manufacturer of motion picture film equipment. Based in Munich, the company was founded in 1917. It produces professional motion picture cameras, lenses, lighting and post-production equipment. Hermann Simon menti ...

. The film has no dialogue aside from small sections of muttering in German and people talking in an airport terminal. The story is told by a

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-Diegetic#Film sound and music, diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, th ...

narrator. The scene in which the hero and the woman look at a cut-away trunk of a tree is a reference to

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

's 1958 film ''

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition where a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. This may be associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating, or difficulties w ...

'' which Marker also references in his 1983 film ''

Sans soleil ''Sans Soleil'' (; "Sunless") is a 1983 French documentary film directed by Chris Marker. It is a meditation on the nature of human memory, showing the inability to recall the context and nuances of memory, and how, as a result, the perception of ...

''. The editing of ''La Jetée'' adds to the intensity of the film. With the use of cut-ins and fade-outs, it produces the eerie and unsettling nature adding to the theme of the apocalyptic destruction of World War III.

Terry Gilliam Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including ''Time Bandits'' (1981), ''B ...

, director of ''

'', describes the editing as "simply poetic" in the combination of editing and soundtrack that is used in the short film. As the film plays out as a photomontage, the only continuous variable is the sound. The sound used in this production is minimal, showing up in the form of narration,

Orchestral score Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses List of musical symbols, musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chord (music), chords of a song or instrumental Musical composition, musical piece. Like ...

and

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...

. The rhythmic patterns of the soundtrack act as a framework to add to the intensity of the film. "The dissolve is synchronized with the sound. As the story moves from the past to the present, ''La Jetee'' creates mental continuity." The soundtrack adds to the

illusion An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort the human perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people. Illusions may o ...

of movement within the film and the change of time.

Interpretation

In ''Black and Blue'', her study of postwar French fiction,

Carol Mavor Carol Jane Mavor is an American writer and professor. Her work includes the books ''Pleasures Taken: Performances of Sexuality and Loss in Victorian Photographs'', ''Becoming: The Photographs of Clementina, Viscountess Hawarden'', and ''Blue Mytho ...

describes ''La Jetée'' as "taking place in a no-place (u-topia) in no-time ( u-chronia)" which she connects to the time and place of the

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...

. She further elaborates: "even the sound of the title resonates with the fairy-tale surprise of finding oneself in another world: ''La Jetée'' evokes 'là j'étais' (there I was)". By "u-topia", Mavor does not refer to "

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...

" as the word is commonly used; she also describes an ambiguity of

dystopia A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

/utopia in the film: "It is dystopia with the hope of utopia, or is it utopia cut by the threat of dystopia."

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese scien ...

blogger Jake Hinkson summed up his interpretation in the title of an essay about the film, "There's No Escape Out of Time". He elaborated: Hinkson also addresses the

symbolic Symbolic may refer to: * Symbol, something that represents an idea, a process, or a physical entity Mathematics, logic, and computing * Symbolic computation, a scientific area concerned with computing with mathematical formulas * Symbolic dynamic ...

use of imagery: "The Man is blindfolded with some kind of padded device and he sees images. The Man is chosen for this assignment because ... he has maintained a sharp mind because of his attachment to certain images. Thus a film told through the use of still photos becomes about looking at images." He further observes that Marker himself did not refer to ''La Jetée'' as a film, but as photo novel. Yannis Karpouzis makes a structuralistic analysis on ''La Jetée'', examining it as an intermedial artwork: Chris Marker creates an "archive" of objects and conditions that have a photographic quality of their own and they are followed by the same predicates as pictures. The dialogue between the media (photography and cinematography) and the filmic

signifier In semiotics, signified and signifier ( French: ''signifié'' and ''signifiant'') stand for the two main components of a sign, where ''signified'' pertains to the "plane of content", while ''signifier'' is the "plane of expression". The idea was ...

(film stills, storyline and narration) is constantly in the backdrop.

Reception and legacy

In 2010, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' ranked ''La Jetée'' first in its list of "Top 10 time-travel movies". In 2012, in correspondence with the ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

'' Poll, the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

deemed ''La Jetée'' as the 50th greatest film of all time. In 1963,

awarded ''La Jetée'' for "Best Short Film." In 1963, ''La Jetée'' was part of the

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...

. In 2009, the film was featured in "Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente. ''La Jetée'' was featured in the "Cine//B Film Festival" in 2011. The

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam. Over a period of twelve days, it has screened more than 300 films and sold more than 250,000 tic ...

had ''La Jetée'' as a featured film in 2019. Science fiction writer

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ...

considers the film one of his main influences. The video for

Sigue Sigue Sputnik Sigue Sigue Sputnik were a British new wave band formed in 1982 by former Generation X bassist Tony James. The band have had three UK top-40 hit singles, including "Love Missile F1-11" and " 21st Century Boy". The band's music, image and insp ...

's 1989 single " Dancerama" is also an homage to ''La Jetée''. The film is one of the influences in the video for

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

's "

Jump They Say "Jump They Say" is a song by English singer-songwriter and actor David Bowie, from his 18th album, ''Black Tie White Noise'' (1993). It was produced by Nile Rodgers and released as the first single from the album in March 1993. While Bowie opt ...

" (1993).

's ''

'' (1995) was inspired by and takes several concepts directly from ''La Jetée'' (acknowledging this debt in the opening credits). The 2003 short film ''La puppé'' is both an homage to and a parody of ''La Jetée''. The 2007 Mexican film ''

Year of the Nail ''Year of the Nail'' ( es, Año uña) is a 2007 Mexican film written and directed by Jonás Cuarón. The film is told entirely through still photographs that the director took of his real life over the course of a year. Plot American college st ...

'', which is told entirely through still photographs, was inspired by ''La Jetée''. The 2018 Spanish film '' Entre Oscuros Sueños'', where is used the still-image movie concept, was entirely inspired by ''La Jetée''.

Kode9 Steve Goodman, known as Kode9 (born 1973) is a Scottish electronic music artist, DJ, and founder of the Hyperdub record label. He was one of the founding members of the early dubstep scene with his late collaborator The Spaceape. He has release ...

in collaboration with Ms. Haptic, Marcel Weber (aka MFO), and Lucy Benson created an homage to ''La Jetée'' in 2011, for the

Unsound Festival Unsound Festival, also known as Unsound, is an annual music festival that takes place in Kraków, Poland, dealing with evolving and mutating forms of music, as well as related visual arts. Apart from the main festival, Unsound regularly takes plac ...

. Northern Irish rock band

Two Door Cinema Club Two Door Cinema Club are a band from Bangor, County Down, Bangor, Northern Ireland. The band formed in 2007 and is composed of three members: Alex Trimble (vocals, rhythm guitar, beats, synths), Sam Halliday (lead guitar, backing vocals), and Ke ...

screened the film at the launch party for their 2016 album ''

Gameshow A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, sh ...

''. The final track on the album, "Je viens de la", is inspired by ''La Jetée'' and describes the journey of the film's protagonist. The film was included in the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" by producer Steven Schneider. ''

Friend of the World ''Friend of the World'' is a 2020 American independent film, independent black-and-white film written and directed by Brian Patrick Butler in his Directorial debut, feature film debut, starring Nick Young and Alexandra Slade. The surreal experim ...

'', a

two-hander A two-hander is a term for a play, film, or television programme with only two main characters. The two characters in question often display differences in social standing or experiences, differences that are explored and possibly overcome as ...

film, was inspired by ''La Jetée'' among others. The Chicago-based band

Isotope 217 Isotope 217° is a Chicago-based band composed mainly of members from Tortoise Tortoises () are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin: ''tortoise''). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from pr ...

recorded a track ''La Jetée'' for their 1997 album, ''The Unstable Molecule''. On the 1998 album ''

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

'', the

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...

band

Tortoise Tortoises () are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin: ''tortoise''). Like other turtles, tortoises have a turtle shell, shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, ...

, of which Isotope 217 is a side-project, featured an alternate version of the same song, title ''Jetty''. Both are inspired by the film. On November 8, 2022 the Chicago Fringe Opera staged a world-premiere concert performance of Seth Boustead and J. Robert Lennon's chamber opera adaptation of the film.

Related media

In 1992, Zone Books released a book which reproduced the film's original images along with the script in both English and French.Marker, Chris (1992). ''La Jetée''. New York: Zone Books. .

Home media release

In Region 2, the film is available with English subtitles in the ''La Jetée/Sans soleil''

digipack Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage. Jewel case A ...

released by Arte Video. In Region 1, the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

has released a ''La Jetée/Sans soleil'' combination DVD / Blu-ray, which features the option of hearing the English or French narration.

References

External links

*
La Jetée
at

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...

*
''La Jetée''
analysis of themes and storyline by Simon Sellars
Platonic Themes in Chris Marker's ''La Jetée''
by Sander Lee at Senses of Cinema
''La Jetée: Unchained Melody''
an essay by Jonathan Romney at the

''La Jetée: The Philosophy of Time Travel''
a video essay by William Leese for The Cinematheque {{DEFAULTSORT:Jetee, La 1960s dystopian films 1960s science fiction films 1962 films Dystopian films Existentialist films Films about time travel Films directed by Chris Marker Films produced by Anatole Dauman Films set in Paris French post-apocalyptic films French science fiction films French short films Metaphysical fiction films Science fiction short films Time loop films 1960s French films