Movie #46: Released in 1962, directed by Chris Marker, 28 minutes. Seen it before!
LetterBoxd Score: 4 stars
La Jetée is something of a puzzle. Its budget is unknown, but it was almost certainly cheap. Almost the whole thing is a series of still images taken on a normal camera. It was apparently made in three weeks and they could only afford to rent a camera for one afternoon (which they used to film the one moving image shot). Yet it is regarded now as one of the greatest movies of all time.
If this format is so accessible, and can be so successful, where are the copycats?
The fact that the photo-novel never became a genre of its own, suggests the medium was really only successful in extremely limited circumstances. Indeed, it’s not really true to say the photo-novel never became a genre, because in fact it did. The photo-novel lives on in webinars: narrated slide decks.
So what are the extremely limited circumstances that make La Jetée so genuinely effective (because I think it is)? I think there are a few things going on.
- It’s a science fiction narrative. Science fiction is a genre that can often succeed, despite 2-dimensional characters, if the ideas are good enough. And I think the ideas in La Jetée are that good. It’s a feast of time travel ideas, delivered in an unusually dense (for film) format, just one after another (thanks in large part to the use of a narrator – it almost becomes an illustrated audiobook). The past or future as the only viable repository of resources to survive the present; the madness of time travel; the image as a way to transcend time; a relationship with a ghost; calling on aid from the future; the satisfying closed time travel loop. The ideas are so compelling that you don’t much mind that you aren’t getting the level of characterization and acting you expect in a movie.
- It’s a science fiction setting. I think it’s unusual for film to handle science fiction ideas as well as novels do, but science fiction films are better at depicting cool science-fiction shit, because they’re visual media. This movie doesn’t have a budget to speak of, but the design is great: goggles, little eye pieces, the war necklace, etc. These aren’t the usual kinds of images you’ve seen many times before.
- Many themes are about the image. The image is a metaphor for memory, and also a plot device for enabling time travel. So telling a movie in images seems like a strength rather than a cost-savings tactic.
- It’s short.
Why would someone think it’s one of the ten greatest films ever made?
It’s lightning in a bottle. A movie like this shouldn’t be compelling, but they found the exact right mix of ingredients to make it work. And because this normally doesn’t work, it wasn’t widely copied and so its approach seems perpetually fresh. It’s worth watching… for thirty minutes.
While watching, I wondered if it would have been even more effective simply as a photo book. In some ways, that would suit the theme even better, because the images really would have timeless permanence. You could linger over them as long as you wanted. But I don’t ultimately think a book version of La Jetée would be as effective. The movie does make good use of editing; when you see and stop seeing images is part of its effect. And the narrator and music bring something too. This is all another way of saying it’s a unique creation.
Next: Cleo from 5 to 7