Post by klep on Jul 15, 2019 6:30:59 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 7/15: La Jetée
SCIENCE FICTION WEEK!
One of the things that most defines a movie is motion. They're called motion pictures after all; we're supposed to see things move. But great cinema has a way of confounding our expectations, and revealing to us blind spots in our psyches. In La Jetée, Chris Marker strips motion from the motion picture to treat us to a haunting short about moments trapped in time.
La Jetée is almost a slideshow. It consists of a series of still images, set either to narration (by Jean Négroni) of the story or to an ominous, lamenting choir. We're introduced to an unnamed protagonist (Davos Hanich) as a child, the last moments before World War II erupts being seared into his mind - most significantly the face of a woman (Hélène Chatelain), peaceful and beautiful. Shortly after, a plane flies overhead, a man dies, and the war begins. It's a memory he clings to throughout the war into the post-war dystopia, living as a prisoner in an underground society hiding from the radioactive wastelands above.
The Man is subjected to an experiment to send people through time - to the past and future - in hopes of bringing back resources that can save mankind from dwindling to nothing in the tunnels. He is a prime suspect because The Experimenter (Jacques Ledoux) believes that one fixed moment he holds in his head will keep him from going mad. It works. The Man's fixation on this woman enables him to find her in the past, and with refinement he is able to spend more and more time with her. And ultimately, he is successful in his mission.
Marker's choice to shoot La Jetée entirely in stills serves multiple purposes. It's practical, for one. Showing the devastation of a nuclear war or any number of other effects sequences would have been expensive and impractical back in the early 60s, but all Marker needs is a matte painting and you get what he's going for. The voice of the narrator and the beautiful score get you across any gaps elided by the cuts between slides; it's economical filmmaking at its most pure.
But it also serves another, more thematic purpose. The Man's story is based entirely on his fixation on a single memory, a snapshot in his mind. That still image of The Woman just before everything went to hell. His fixation drives him back, again and again, to this woman. Her fixed in the time before the war and him desperate to get back to this one moment of peace he can remember. He is frustrated by his inability to stay with her, to live with her, but those moments are always frozen, never for him to be a part of. But he grows closer to her, is able to be with her longer at a time. We see her sleeping. A cut and she's changed position. A cut and she's changed position. Again. Again. Again. She opens her eyes. Wait.... That wasn't a slide, we saw her move! It's the one moment of moving footage in the film, and it's a powerful indicator of both the experiment's increasing success and the growing closeness between The Man and the Woman, and it's a thrill to behold.
But the past cannot be changed, try as The Man might. He makes it back to the past, rushing to save her from the bombs. But his captors aren't willing to let him go. His mission successful, he must be eliminated. They have an agent waiting in the past for him. He dies on the pier at Orly, as his younger self sees the man fall. The war begins; The Woman dies. The memory remains frozen. The end.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 7/22: The Trouble With Angels
IT'S LADIES' WEEK!
Finally, at long last, we're getting to Ida Lupino's The Trouble With Angels. Join us next week as we discuss this film about a couple of young girls tearing things up at a Catholic school! The Trouble With Angels is available on the Criterion Channel and for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 7/16: Rolling Thunder Revue
Martin Scorsese's fictionalized 'documentary' about Bob Dylan is the second film in the Podcast's latest pairing. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of Rolling Thunder Revue, available on Netflix.
SCIENCE FICTION WEEK!
One of the things that most defines a movie is motion. They're called motion pictures after all; we're supposed to see things move. But great cinema has a way of confounding our expectations, and revealing to us blind spots in our psyches. In La Jetée, Chris Marker strips motion from the motion picture to treat us to a haunting short about moments trapped in time.
La Jetée is almost a slideshow. It consists of a series of still images, set either to narration (by Jean Négroni) of the story or to an ominous, lamenting choir. We're introduced to an unnamed protagonist (Davos Hanich) as a child, the last moments before World War II erupts being seared into his mind - most significantly the face of a woman (Hélène Chatelain), peaceful and beautiful. Shortly after, a plane flies overhead, a man dies, and the war begins. It's a memory he clings to throughout the war into the post-war dystopia, living as a prisoner in an underground society hiding from the radioactive wastelands above.
The Man is subjected to an experiment to send people through time - to the past and future - in hopes of bringing back resources that can save mankind from dwindling to nothing in the tunnels. He is a prime suspect because The Experimenter (Jacques Ledoux) believes that one fixed moment he holds in his head will keep him from going mad. It works. The Man's fixation on this woman enables him to find her in the past, and with refinement he is able to spend more and more time with her. And ultimately, he is successful in his mission.
Marker's choice to shoot La Jetée entirely in stills serves multiple purposes. It's practical, for one. Showing the devastation of a nuclear war or any number of other effects sequences would have been expensive and impractical back in the early 60s, but all Marker needs is a matte painting and you get what he's going for. The voice of the narrator and the beautiful score get you across any gaps elided by the cuts between slides; it's economical filmmaking at its most pure.
But it also serves another, more thematic purpose. The Man's story is based entirely on his fixation on a single memory, a snapshot in his mind. That still image of The Woman just before everything went to hell. His fixation drives him back, again and again, to this woman. Her fixed in the time before the war and him desperate to get back to this one moment of peace he can remember. He is frustrated by his inability to stay with her, to live with her, but those moments are always frozen, never for him to be a part of. But he grows closer to her, is able to be with her longer at a time. We see her sleeping. A cut and she's changed position. A cut and she's changed position. Again. Again. Again. She opens her eyes. Wait.... That wasn't a slide, we saw her move! It's the one moment of moving footage in the film, and it's a powerful indicator of both the experiment's increasing success and the growing closeness between The Man and the Woman, and it's a thrill to behold.
But the past cannot be changed, try as The Man might. He makes it back to the past, rushing to save her from the bombs. But his captors aren't willing to let him go. His mission successful, he must be eliminated. They have an agent waiting in the past for him. He dies on the pier at Orly, as his younger self sees the man fall. The war begins; The Woman dies. The memory remains frozen. The end.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 7/22: The Trouble With Angels
IT'S LADIES' WEEK!
Finally, at long last, we're getting to Ida Lupino's The Trouble With Angels. Join us next week as we discuss this film about a couple of young girls tearing things up at a Catholic school! The Trouble With Angels is available on the Criterion Channel and for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 7/16: Rolling Thunder Revue
Martin Scorsese's fictionalized 'documentary' about Bob Dylan is the second film in the Podcast's latest pairing. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of Rolling Thunder Revue, available on Netflix.