La Jetée

Year: 1962
Director: Chris Marker
Length: 28mins

Chris Marker is a french writer, photographer, artist, film essayist and- of course- film director. he was born in 1921. still alive.

Little is known on marker's early life. Most people known is that Alain Resnais brought Marker to film marking with three years collaboration, Before making film he was a journalist.

Majority film work of Christ Marker are documentary. And this film, La Jetee is one of his a few fiction film and also the famous one. La jetee is important key film of Left bank film movement.

So, what is Left Bank Film?

Left bank is a subgroup of the french new wave film movement, as a kind of intellectual, political, feminist, literary, aesthetic and avant- garde wing of new wave. the two groups aren't opposite, instead they are friends, cooperators and allies.

Left bank main members are: Alain Resnais, Chris Maker, Agnes Varda and Jacques Demy. 

And how about this film, and what is the story ?

La jetee is about time travelling, a science fiction film. It was constructed entirely by thousands  black and white still picture. the background set on the postwar and destroyed city -Paris, the main character is a prison who has a strong children time memory about a man be killed in the airport (la jetee), and he is sent to past, in the old times he meets a girl  and falls in love with her... he tries to escape from the present world, and is chased and shoot by the agent from present. Finally, he realise he is the man who be killed in his memory.

social and political issue:
you can say La Jetee is an anti-war film, because it shows the ruins of Paris. in this film.

contrast:
present- the post apocalyptic city, people only live in the dark underground, where is full of the white noise: like generator and radio wave sound.

past- before destroying, the upper ground world is sunshine and bright. the background sound is people, animal natural sound.       
     
museum/ gallery : survivors dwell in underground of Palais de Chaillot galleries. when the main role comes back to the past, he go to date a girl in the museum.

aesthetic:
Chris Marker is also known as photographer, that's easy to understand why he can take stunning pictures to compose this classic film, you can see almost all the still images are well-designed, like a poem.