A man lives in post-apocalyptical WWIII, where everyone must live underground. The scientists are researching time travel, in the hopes that they can save the current situation. But while they may be able to send people back or forth in time, the people’s minds cannot take it, so they must find someone’s mind who can.
They eventually find a prisoner who has recurrent nightmares about a time he was at the airport, and he saw a man running towards a woman, smitten by her. But as he was running, the man dropped down dead. They take him into the testing labs, and start to induce dreams about the woman appearing in different time periods.
They eventually decide that he’s ready, and send him back in time. He completes his mission, but his captors then want to kill him. When he gets an offer from the future to be rescued, he asks to be sent back in time instead – with a particular moment in mind.
He arrives at the jetee (airport) and sees a little boy looking at him. He then sees the woman from his dreams and runs towards her.
Before dropping down dead.
La Jetee is a Chris Marker short, entirely composed of stills, with only one moment of motion. This wasn’t a stylistic choice, though, it was due to Marker being unable to afford a film camera. There is no dialogue in the short, it is entirely told through narration.
Yet, despite being composed from stills, the film manages to move at a rapid pace. It’s like something out of ‘Twilight Zone’. The narrative is clear and concise, and the emotional ups and downs are escalated by dynamics of the photos – that is, more extremes being in the emotional shots.
Though the narrative is slightly predictable, the imagery is ultimately effective, and La Jetee makes for a interesting piece.
