La Jetée
La Jetée is a 1962 French science fiction featurette directed by Chris Marker and associated with the Left Bank artistic movement. Constructed almost entirely from still photos, it tells the stable time loop story of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel. It is 28 minutes long and shot in black and white.
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.
More details
author | Chris Marker |
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contentLocation | Paris |
director | Chris Marker |
editor | Jean Ravel |
events | time loop time travel |
genre | science fiction |
keywords | advanced follow haunt meet rescue test subject world war iii |
musicBy | Trevor Duncan |
producer | Anatole Dauman |
productionCompany | Argos Films |
publisher | Argos Films |
theme | avant-garde and experimental dystopian post-apocalyptic short time time loop |