La Jetee (1963) Film Review

Fig 1: "La Jetee" Theatrical Poster

The film "La Jetee" (1962) is a film directed by Chris Marker that uses still images with only a tiny snipet of actual video footage. The way in which the film emotionally effects its audience through this unconventional method is unexpected.

"it’s a stirring, emotional film about the unique hold memories have over people’s lives and how experiences themselves are fleeting." (Melin 2012)

As noted by Melin in the quotation above, the way in which Marker portrays and conveys the incredibly far fetch plot by focusing upon the emotional journey of the protagonist and his love interest and leaving the realistic elements out of focus. The memories from the protagonist's childhood have a "unique hold" over him throughout the rest of his life and through the ending's generic, albeit unexpected, twist the protagonist actually creates those strong memories for himself. His complete obsession and the narrator's emphasise upon the love interest in the story draws the audiences attention away from his death to allow for this surprising outcome.

Fig 2: Death scene in "La Jetee"

The settings for many of the love interest sequences convey interest and intrigue to the audience from normal and ordinary objects.

"The postwar world could be any basement hallway, while the trip into the past takes advantage of Parisian shops, parks, streets and museum galleries – Marker knows how to find the extraordinary in the ordinary." (Hall 2011)

This approach, that which Hall points out, relies on our suspension of disbelief, which itself is supported through how the film presents its story. The fact that a narrator is used and describes each scene as they happen brings the story to life for the audience as the photo stills, by nature, are not enough to captivate the audience and run the risk of boring them instead. This makes the narrator an integral part of the film's construction and allows the story's direction to be controlled, portrayed and conveyed more acutely to its audience, this is most obvious in the unexpected twist mentioned earlier.

Fig 3: Park walk scene in "La Jetee"

The soundtrack within "La Jetee" makes use of both actual music and calculated silence to invigorate the film's story elements.

"The soundtrack's texture is similarly sparse, and the fluid montage leads the viewer into the sensation of watching moving images. Until, that is, an extraordinary epiphany when an image genuinely does move: the man's sleeping lover opens her eyes." (Andrew 2006)

This allows the film to come alive as if watching a comic book slideshow, and highlights the protagonists emotions in each scene and sets the mood of each scene quickly and simply. The narrator's voice controls the emotional conveyance of each scene as well, with his vocal tones changing only very slightly and still being able to capture the audiences attention.

Illustration List

Fig 1:"La Jetee" Theatrical Poster (1963) [Poster], At: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f7/La_Jetee_Poster.jpg/220px-La_Jetee_Poster.jpg

Fig 2: Death Scene in "La Jetee" (1963) Directed by: Chris Marker. [Film Still] France:
Argos Studios. At: http://www.urielorlow.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2002/09/la-jetee-orly.jpg (Accessed: 07/01/2014)

Fig 3: Park Walk Scene in "La Jetee" (1963) Directed by: Chris Marker. [Film Still] France:
Argos Studios. At: http://mechanicalturk.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/la-jetee1.jpeg
(Accessed: 07/01/2014)

Bibliography

Melin, Eric (2012) At: http://www.scene-stealers.com/columns/overlooked-movie-monday/la-jetee-sans-soliel-blu-ray-review/ [Online Review] Accessed: 07/01/2012

Hall, Phil (2011) At: http://www.filmthreat.com/features/34818/ [Online Review] Accessed: 07/01/2011

Andrew, Geoff (2006) At: http://www.timeout.com/london/film/la-jetee [Online Review] Accessed: 07/01/2014