Editing La Jetée

{{Short description|1962 French featurette}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = La Jetée
| image          = La Jetee Poster.jpg
| alt            =
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Chris Marker]]
| producer       = [[Anatole Dauman]]
| writer         = Chris Marker
| narrator       = [[Jean Négroni]]
| starring       = {{ubl|[[Hélène Châtelain]] | Davos Hanich | [[Jacques Ledoux]]}}
| music          = [[Trevor Duncan]]
| cinematography = {{ubl|Jean Chiabaut | Chris Marker}}
| editing        = Jean Ravel
| studio         = Argos Films
| distributor    = Argos Films
| released       = {{Film date|1962|2|16|df=y|France}}
| runtime        = 28 minutes
| country        = France
| language       = {{ubl|French | German}}
| budget         =
| gross          =
}}
'''''La Jetée''''' ({{IPA|fr|la ʒəte}}) is a 1962 French science fiction [[featurette]] directed by [[Chris Marker]] and associated with the [[French New Wave#Left Bank|Left Bank]] artistic movement. [[still image film|Constructed almost entirely from still photos]], it tells the [[Causal loop|stable time loop]] story of a [[post-apocalyptic science fiction|post-nuclear war]] experiment in time travel. It is 28 minutes long and shot in black and white.

It won the [[Prix Jean Vigo]] for short film. The 1995 science fiction film ''[[12 Monkeys]]'' was inspired by and borrows several concepts directly from ''La Jetée'', as does the [[12 Monkeys (TV series)|2015 TV series of the same name]].

==Plot ==
A man is a prisoner in the aftermath of World War III in post-apocalyptic Paris, where survivors live underground in the ''[[Palais de Chaillot]]'' galleries. Scientists research time travel, hoping to send test subjects to different time periods "to call past and future to the rescue of the present." They have difficulty finding subjects who can mentally withstand the shock of time travel. The scientists eventually settle upon the protagonist; his key to the past is a vague but obsessive memory from his pre-war childhood of a woman he had seen on the observation platform ("the jetty") at [[Orly Airport]] shortly before witnessing a startling incident there. He did not understand exactly what happened, but knew he had seen a man die.

After several attempts, he reaches the pre-war period. He meets the woman from his memory, and they develop a romantic relationship. After his successful passages to the past, the experimenters attempt to send him into the far future. In a brief meeting with the technologically advanced people of the future, he is given a power unit sufficient to regenerate his own destroyed society.

Upon his return, with his mission accomplished, he discerns that he is to be executed by his jailers. He is contacted by the people of the future, who offer to help him escape to their time permanently; but he asks instead to be returned to the pre-war time of his childhood, hoping to find the woman again. He is returned to the past, placed on the jetty at the airport, and it occurs to him that the child version of himself is probably also there at the same time. He is more concerned with locating the woman, and quickly spots her. However, as he rushes to her, he notices an agent of his jailers who has followed him and realizes the agent is about to kill him. In his final moments, he comes to understand that the incident he witnessed as a child, which has haunted him ever since, was his own death.

==Cast==
* [[Jean Négroni]] as Narrator
* [[Hélène Châtelain]] as The Woman
* Davos Hanich as The Man
* [[Jacques Ledoux]] as The Experimenter
* [[Ligia Borowczyk|Ligia Branice]] as Woman From The Future
* Janine Kleina as Woman From The Future
* [[William Klein (photographer)|William Klein]] as Man From The Future

==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.

==Interpretation==
In ''Black and Blue'', her study of postwar French fiction, [[Carol Mavor]] describes ''La Jetée'' as "taking place in a no-place (u-topia) in no-time ([[Uchronia|u-chronia]])" which she connects to the time and place of the [[fairy tale]]. She further elaborates: "even the sound of the title resonates with the fairy-tale surprise of finding oneself in another world: ''La Jetée'' evokes 'là j'étais' (there I was)". By "u-topia", Mavor does not refer to "[[utopia]]" as the word is commonly used; she also describes an ambiguity of [[dystopia]]/utopia in the film: "It is dystopia with the hope of utopia, or is it utopia cut by the threat of dystopia."<ref>{{cite book | last=Mavor | first=Carol | author-link=Carol Mavor|title=Black and Blue: The Bruising Passion of Camera Lucida, La Jetée, Sans soleil, and Hiroshima mon amour | date=2012 | page=60 | publisher=Duke University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OiFkvwzEoGsC&q=%22It+is+dystopia+with+the+hope+of+utopia%22&pg=PA60 | isbn=978-0-8223-5271-6 | access-date=11 September 2015}}</ref>

[[Tor Books]] blogger Jake Hinkson summed up his interpretation in the title of an essay about the film, "There's No Escape Out of Time". He elaborated:

{{blockquote|text=What [the protagonist] finds ... is that the past is never as simple as we wish it to be. To return to it is to realize that we never understood it. He also finds—and here it is impossible to miss Marker's message for his viewers—a person cannot escape from their own time, anyway. Try as we might to lose ourselves, we will always be dragged back into the world, into the here and now. Ultimately, there is no escape from the present.}}

Hinkson also addresses the [[symbolism (arts)|symbolic]] use of imagery: "The Man is blindfolded with some kind of padded device and he sees images. The Man is chosen for this assignment because ... he has maintained a sharp mind because of his attachment to certain images. Thus a film told through the use of still photos becomes about looking at images." He further observes that Marker himself did not refer to ''La Jetée'' as a film, but as [[photo novel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tor.com/2014/11/03/theres-no-escape-out-of-time-la-jetee/|title=There's No Escape Out of Time: ''La Jetée''|last=Hinkson|first=Jake|date=3 November 2014|website=Tor.com|publisher=Tor Books/Macmillan|access-date=14 June 2015}}<!--As an official blog from a major sci-fi publisher this is not a WP:SPS.--></ref>

Yannis Karpouzis makes a [[structuralistic]] analysis on ''La Jetée'', examining it as an intermedial artwork: Chris Marker creates an "archive" of objects and conditions that have a photographic quality of their own and they are followed by the same predicates as pictures. The dialogue between the media (photography and cinematography) and the filmic [[signifier]] (film stills, storyline and narration) is constantly in the backdrop.<ref>{{cite book |last= Karpouzis|first= Yannis |date= 2019|title= The empty square of Chris Marker: a structural analysis on La Jetée |publisher= Architecture school of Athens}}</ref>

==Reception and legacy==

=== Release, awards, and recognition ===
In 1963, [[Prix Jean Vigo]] awarded ''La Jetée'' for "Best Short Film".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000548/1963/1?ref_=ttawd_ev_1  |title=Prix Jean Vigo (1963)|website=[[IMDb]] |access-date=1 December 2019}}</ref> That same year, ''La Jetée'' was included in the [[Locarno International Film Festival]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite web| url= https://mubi.com/films/la-jetee/awards| title=La Jetee (1962) Awards & Festivals| website= mubi.com |access-date=5 December 2019}}</ref> the [[Trieste Science+Fiction Festival]], and the [[Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056119/releaseinfo/ | title=La Jetée (Short 1962) - Release info - IMDb | website=[[IMDb]] }}</ref> The film has since been included in several contemporary film festivals, including the Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente in 2009,<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://mubi.com/awards-and-festivals/buenos-aires?year=2009 |title= Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema 2009| website= mubi.com | publisher=| date=| accessdate= }}</ref> the "Cine//B Film Festival" in 2011, and the [[International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam]] in 2019.<ref name=":0" />

''La Jetée'' was included by producer Steven Schneider in the 2003 film reference book ''[[1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die]]''.<ref>{{Citation|title=La Jetée (1962) | website= [[IMDb]].com |url= http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056119/trivia|access-date=2019-12-06}}</ref>  In 2010, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' ranked ''La Jetée'' first in its list of "Top 10 time-travel movies".<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Cruz |first=Gilbert |url= https://entertainment.time.com/2010/03/26/top-10-time-travel-movies |title='La Jetee,' 1962 |magazine=Time |date=2010-03-18 |access-date=2020-05-02}}</ref> In 2012, in correspondence with the ''[[Sight & Sound]]'' poll, the [[British Film Institute]] deemed ''La Jetée'' as the 50th greatest film of all time.<ref name="bfi">{{cite web| url= http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120802102928/http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time |url-status= dead |archive-date= 2 August 2012 |title=The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time |date= 1 August 2012 |work=[[Sight & Sound]] |publisher=[[British Film Institute]] |access-date=2012-12-19}}</ref> In 2022, it took the spot of 67th greatest film on the ''Sight & Sound'' critics' poll, and 35th greatest film on the director's poll, respectively.<ref>{{Cite web |title=La Jetée (1962) |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/e6855ee9-c56d-5914-9f9b-69307cef5b18/la-jetee |access-date=2023-11-12 |website=BFI |language=en}}</ref>

=== In popular culture ===
Science fiction writer [[William Gibson]] considers the film one of his main influences.<ref>{{Cite news| url= http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/william-gibson-on-how-la-jetee-changed-his-life.html|title=How Chris Marker's Radical SciFi Film, La Jetée, Changed the Life of Cyberpunk Prophet, William Gibson|work=Open Culture|access-date=2017-11-20| language=en-US}}</ref>

On November 8, 2022 the Chicago Fringe Opera staged a world-premiere concert performance of Seth Boustead and J. Robert Lennon's chamber opera adaptation of the film.<ref>{{cite web |title=World Premiere LA JETÉE |url=https://www.chicagofringeopera.com/event/la-jetee/ |access-date=2022-11-08 |website=chicagofringeopera.com |publisher=Chicago Fringe Opera}}</ref>

==== Music ====
The video for [[Sigue Sigue Sputnik]]'s 1989 single "[[Dancerama]]" is an homage to ''La Jetée''.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.sputnikworld.com/2discograpy_singles.html |title= Sigue Sigue Sputnikworld: singles |date=2002-12-09 | website= sputnikworld.com |access-date=2015-11-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20021209062846/http://www.sputnikworld.com/2discograpy_singles.html |archive-date= 9 December 2002 }}</ref> The film is also one of the influences in the video for [[David Bowie]]'s "[[Jump They Say]]" (1993).<ref>"David Bowie's 'Jump They Say'", special feature on the Criterion Collection DVD of ''La Jetée'' and ''Sans soleil''</ref>

The Chicago-based band [[Isotope 217]] recorded the track "La Jetée" for their 1997 album''The Unstable Molecule''. On the 1998 album ''[[TNT (Tortoise album)|TNT]]'', the [[post-rock]] band [[Tortoise (band)|Tortoise]], of which Isotope 217 is a side-project, featured an alternate version of the same song, titled "Jetty". Both are inspired by the film.

[[Kode9]], in collaboration with Ms. Haptic, Marcel Weber (aka MFO), and Lucy Benson created an homage to ''La Jetée'' in 2011, for the [[Unsound Festival]].<ref>{{cite web |date=2013-12-11 |title=Kode 9, MFO & Ms Haptic present 'Her Ghost' |url=http://www.mutek.org/en/archives/artists/8171-kode-9-mfo-ms-haptic-present-her-ghost |access-date=2015-11-09 |website=mutek.org |publisher=MUTEK |archive-date=15 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150615141100/http://www.mutek.org/en/archives/artists/8171-kode-9-mfo-ms-haptic-present-her-ghost |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Northern Irish rock band [[Two Door Cinema Club]] screened the film at the launch party for their 2016 album ''[[Gameshow (album)|Gameshow]]''. The final track on the album, "Je viens de la", is inspired by ''La Jetée'' and describes the journey of the film's protagonist.<ref>{{cite news |date=16 September 2016 |title=A Changed Two Door Cinema Club Launched Their Album in London |work=[[NME]].com |url=http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/two-door-cinema-club-tufnell-park-763946}}</ref>

==== Film ====
[[Terry Gilliam]]'s ''[[12 Monkeys]]'' (1995) was inspired by and takes several concepts directly from ''La Jetée'' (acknowledging this debt in the opening credits). The 2003 short film ''La puppé'' is both an homage to and a parody of ''La Jetée''.<ref>{{cite web| url= https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/shortnotsweet/puppe.html |title= Independent Lens . SHORT, NOT SWEET . La Puppé |publisher= | website= [[PBS]].org |access-date= 2015-11-09}}</ref>

The 2007 Mexican film ''[[Year of the Nail]]'', which is told entirely through still photographs, was inspired by ''La Jetée''. The 2018 Spanish film ''[[Entre Oscuros Sueños]]'', where the still-image movie concept is also used, was entirely inspired by ''La Jetée''. ''[[Friend of the World]]'', a [[two-hander]] film, was inspired by ''La Jetée,'' among others.<ref>{{cite web | title=Horror Highlights: NO MAN OF GOD, STABBY SATURDAYS, DEMONIC, FRIEND OF THE WORLD, THE FINAL RIDE | url=https://dailydead.com/horror-highlights-no-man-of-god-stabby-saturdays-demonic-friend-of-the-world-the-final-ride/ |publisher=Daily Dead |date=2021-07-09 | access-date= 2021-08-18}}</ref>

==== Games ====
[[Leonard Boyarsky]], the art director of the initial installment of the [[Fallout (video game)|''Fallout'']] series, was influenced by the look of the technology in ''La Jetée.''<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa5IzHhAdi4 |title=Fallout Classic Revisited |language=en |access-date=2024-04-18 |via=www.youtube.com}}</ref>

==Related media==
In 1992, Zone Books released a book which reproduced the film's original images along with the script in both English and French.<ref>Marker, Chris (1992). ''La Jetée''. New York: Zone Books. {{ISBN|978-0-942299-67-0}}.</ref>

==Home media==
In [[DVD region code#Region codes and countries|Region 2]], the film is available with English subtitles in the ''La Jetée/Sans soleil'' [[digipack]] released by [[Arte|Arte Video]]. In [[DVD region code#Region codes and countries|Region 1]], the [[Criterion Collection]] has released a ''La Jetée/Sans soleil'' combination DVD / Blu-ray, which features the option of hearing the English or French narration.

==See also==
* [[Filmstrip]]
* [[List of cult films]]
* [[List of films featuring time loops]]
* ''[[The Glass Fortress (film)|The Glass Fortress]]'' (similar [[still image film]] style)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|id=0056119|title=La Jetée}}
* [https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/648488/la-jetee#overview ''La Jetée''] at [[Turner Classic Movies]]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3oAbeNkMfY ''La Jetée: The Philosophy of Time Travel''], a video essay by William Leese for The Cinematheque
* [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/485-la-jet-e-unchained-melody ''La Jetée: Unchained Melody''], an essay by Jonathan Romney at the [[Criterion Collection]]
* [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2000/feature-articles/jetee/ Platonic Themes in Chris Marker's ''La Jetée''] by Sander Lee at Senses of Cinema
* [https://www.simonsellars.com/retrospecto-la-jetee ''Retrospecto: La Jetée''] review by Simon Sellars

{{Chris Marker}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jetee, La}}
[[Category:1960s dystopian films]]
[[Category:1960s science fiction films]]
[[Category:1962 films]]
[[Category:Dystopian films]]
[[Category:Existentialist films]]
[[Category:1950s and 1960s films about time travel]]
[[Category:Films directed by Chris Marker]]
[[Category:Films produced by Anatole Dauman]]
[[Category:Films set in Paris]]
[[Category:French black-and-white films]]
[[Category:French post-apocalyptic films]]
[[Category:French science fiction short films]]
[[Category:Metaphysical fiction films]]
[[Category:Time loop films]]
[[Category:1960s French films]]
[[Category:Films scored by Trevor Duncan]]
[[Category:French avant-garde and experimental films]]
[[Category:1962 short films]]