Cyberpunk Review » La Jetée

January 16, 2006

La Jetée

Year: 1962

Directed by: Chris Marker

Written by: Chris Marker

IMDB Reference

Degree of Cyberpunk Visuals: High

Correlation to Cyberpunk Themes: Very High

Key Cast Members:

  • Narrator: Jean Négroni
  • The Man: Davos Hanich
  • The Woman: Hélène Chatelain
  • The Experimenter: Jacques Ledoux
  • Rating: 10 out of 10

    screen capture

     

    Overview:La Jetée as a movie is one of the most interesting I’ve encountered. Virtually the whole movie involves narrating still shots. While this sounds like a glorified slideshow, its anything but. The pacing is magnificent. The mood created is truly immersive. In a truly astounding feat, Marker traps the viewer in this "slide show" mentality, and then, as the movie is discussing whether the character can decipher what’s real or not, he pulls the run out from under us.

    I have reviewed this movie in-depth in combination with 12 Monkeys (these two movies truly go together). Please check it out:

     

    ~See movies similar to this one~

    Tags: cyberpunk movie review

    This post has been filed under Awesome Cyberpunk Themes, Memory Modification, Time Travel, Dystopic Future Movies, 10 Star Movies, Surreal Cyberpunk Movies, Good low-budget movies, Cyberpunk movies from before 1980 by SFAM.

    Comments

    May 14, 2006

    Glam Creature said:

    I think it’s better if comparing to “Twelve Monkeys”. But I still can’t deicide about the still photos.Hmmm… In one way, it’s conceptual story-telling, and looking from the standpoint of conceptual cinema or video art, everything’s OK.
    But, on another hand, I think, it maybe lacks creativity. If they added voice to photos, maybe they could add something more? Maybe more photos to create something like stop-motion animation( the closest point to this, is the part, where main charakter’s face with closed eyes is shown in row of parallel shots) or some drawings to illustrate the future…( I remembered famous French architect’s Courbusier drawings-utopian projects from the sixties, where, for example, all oldtown of Paris is replaced by gigantic block-houses).

    Those shots of future people, half-face in the dark, it looked very similar to the cover of second Beatles’ LP “With The Beatles”, released in 1963. What’s the secret connection? :)

    May 15, 2006

    SFAM said:

    Hi Glam, I’m sure La Jetée doesn’t work for everyone, but I can’t imagine a more creative movie. It actually makes live motion camera work magical when it finally occurs (the woman in bed scene). As for the Beatles thing, I don’t really see the connection.

    January 22, 2007

    Brooders.net » Blog Archive » La Jetee said (pingback):

    […] According to Cyberpunk review, 12 Monkeys is a remake of La Jetee.. SFAM over at Cyberpunk review has done a brilliant job of documenting and reviewing cyberpunk movies, good and bad. He also, compared the similarities of the two in his review The Acorn and the Oak Tree. […]

    May 8, 2007

    Klaw said:

    I understand Glam’s maybe annoyance with the still frames… but I think they were much more powerful as single photographs. It’s really quite a simple compelling story, and the photography I thought was quite beautiful. Watched in conjunction with 12 Monkeys, they definitely work off each other so your other review here is quite apt. The one shot of James Cole in the WW1 trench becomes all the more moving after watching La Jetee.

    June 3, 2007

    neuroticadivine said:

    This fantastic movie is being released on DVD via Criterion very soon. While I own it on DVD already (in a collection called Shorts)… I figure I’ll send Criterion a message… I’ll buy it and let them know it was a good release.

    April 13, 2008

    Cookie said:

    Hey, just wondering if you were going to review the French film ‘Alphaville’. I thought it was a wonderful science fiction movie, and I would have guessed the cyberpunk correlation was pretty spot on.

    Also, La Jetée was a beautiful film, and very moving (despite the general lack of movement :P), but do you think it could be reviewed without the comparison to Twelve Monkeys? As much as I loved that movie, watching each movie separately is just as an interesting experience as well as watching them together.

    September 28, 2008

    Mr No1 said:

    I agree with not comparing this to 12 Monkeys. But if we have to do so, I must admit I prefer Gilliam’s… It’s not that this film is worse (or better), 12 Monkeys just moves me more…
    Anyway, I love La Jetee’s music =)

    Leave a comment


    ~All Related Entries Related This~

     

    <<--Back to top

    Made with WordPress and the Semiologic CMS | Design by Mesoconcepts