La Jetée is a 1962 sci-fi film by French director Chris Marker. The opening credit sequence describes it as a “photo-roman” or photo-novel, since the story is told entirely through a sequence of photographs narrated by Jean Négroni, and backed with a haunting soundtrack by Trevor Duncan.
It centres on an unnamed man who becomes a prisoner-of-war in post-World-War-III France. His captors force him to become a time traveller, seeking in other eras a means of sustaining humankind. Initially they send him to pre-war Paris, where he meets a woman with whom he develops a romantic relationship. He later travels to the distant future as well.
The 1995 film Twelve Monkeys borrowed this basic plot, but as much as I enjoyed that film, I think La Jetée tells in its 28 minutes a far more poignant, moving story than Gilliam’s adaptation. There are some beautiful shots throughout, and their photo-journalistic style gives the film a heightened sense of realism, almost as though you’re watching a post-apocalyptic documentary.
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