la Jetee 1962 Chris Marker Director Review

When Terry Gilliam based his film: 12 Monkeys on this 28 minute experimental art film masterpiece, many thought it was nothing short of blasphemy.

I hoped the movie might wind up appearing on DVD sets of Gilliam's film--though that hasn't happened yet-- damn it.

La Jetee is an utterly unique film that requires a viewer to take a deep breath and just experience what is being presented.

You will watch a series of photographs, like a slide show.  It takes a while to get used to this, but eventually we do watch this as we would a film.  The photos move, there is a story.

Survivors of nuclear holocaust, force their prisoners to be time travel experiments.  One of the prisoners has a memory of being a boy and visiting the Orly airport where he saw a stranger get murdered.  Will he be transported to the time and place of the murder to re-witness it?

It's a strange film, unlike anything you have seen since.  It's idea is perhaps inspired by a Phillip K. Dick short story.   

It is a film that might make  you consider how film works on you and it might change your notions of what film is or should be.

La Jetee  1962  Directed  by Chris Marker