Editing La Jetée (section)

==Production==
''La Jetée'' is constructed almost entirely from [[optical printer|optically printed]] photographs playing out as a [[photomontage]] of varying rhythm. It contains only one brief shot (of the woman mentioned above sleeping and suddenly waking up) originating on a motion-picture camera, this due to the fact that Marker could only afford to hire one for an afternoon. The stills were taken with a [[Pentax Spotmatic]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cadrage.net/entretiens/bonfanti.htm |title=Entretien avec Antoine Bonfanti, Cadrage 2004 |publisher=Cadrage.net |access-date=2015-11-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090704191233/http://www.cadrage.net/entretiens/bonfanti.htm |archive-date=4 July 2009 }}</ref> and the motion-picture segment was shot with a [[35mm movie film|35 mm]] [[Arriflex]].<ref>{{cite web|title=De l'autre côté du miroir|url=http://www.net4image.com/pedagogie/cineastes/marker.htm|access-date=8 January 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701132256/http://www.net4image.com/pedagogie/cineastes/marker.htm|archive-date=1 July 2007 |language=fr}}</ref> The film has no dialogue aside from small sections of muttering in German and people talking in an airport terminal. The story is told by a [[voice-over]] narrator.<!-- The soundtrack is stock music by [[Trevor Duncan]]. The music of the opening of the film is from a Russian piece titled "We bow down before your cross" (or "Кресту Твоему" in Russian), composed by [[Piotr Gontcharov]]. [This needs citation before being put back] --> The scene in which the hero and the woman look at a cut-away trunk of a tree is a reference to [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s 1958 film ''[[Vertigo (film)|Vertigo]]'' which Marker also references in his 1983 film ''[[Sans soleil]]''.<ref>"On ''Vertigo''", special feature on the [[Criterion Collection]] DVD of ''La Jetée'' and ''Sans soleil''. The same scene also appears in Terry Gilliam's [[12 Monkeys (film)|12 Monkeys]].</ref>

The editing of ''La Jetée'' adds to the intensity of the film. With the use of cut-ins and [[Fade (audio engineering)|fade-outs]], it produces the eerie and unsettling nature adding to the theme of the apocalyptic destruction of World War III. [[Terry Gilliam]], director of ''[[12 Monkeys]]'', describes the editing as "simply poetic"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=55&v=XfVDUOYECSU&feature=emb_title|title=Terry Gilliam on La Jetée|date=28 November 2012|via=YouTube|access-date=23 November 2019}}</ref> in the combination of editing and soundtrack that is used in the short film.

As the film plays out as a photomontage, the only continuous variable is the sound. The sound used in this production is minimal, showing up in the form of narration, [[orchestral score]] and [[sound effect]]. The rhythmic patterns of the soundtrack act as a framework to add to the intensity of the film. "The dissolve is synchronized with the sound. As the story moves from the past to the present, ''La Jetee'' creates mental continuity."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://filmslie.com/chris-marker-la-jetee-analysis-temporality/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140424070809/http://filmslie.com/chris-marker-la-jetee-analysis-temporality/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=24 April 2014|title=Chris Marker's La Jetee Analysis: Mortality and the Illusion of Time|last=Ignoramous|first=Lamos|website=Films Lie|date=11 April 2014 |access-date=23 November 2019}}</ref> The soundtrack adds to the [[illusion]] of movement within the film and the change of time.