La Jetée

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?

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.

[…] 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. […]

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.

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.

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.

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 =)