La Jetée was shot in 1962 so it’s not as if the visuals in this film are incredible. In fact, the film only includes photographs. There is no video or anything like that, just images that appear on the screen.
Despite all of this, the plot of the film is fantastic. It’s unbelievably captivating and has a remarkable plot twist at the end. Throughout the whole film, the man has a strong affection for this one woman who he last saw on the deck. He does not know why this woman is so important to him or how he knows her, but his affection for her is consistent throughout the movie. For the majority of the film, the man travels back in time and spends as much time as he can with this woman. They spend time together, laugh and just enjoy each other’s company which makes you think they may have been husband and wife or at least boyfriend and girlfriend.
The man then travels to the future and brings back exactly what the commanders are looking for. They no longer need his help which means they’re simply going to kill him because they have no alternative use for him. The people from the future go back in time and are willing to bring the man to the future with them to escape his death.
Instead of escaping to the future, the man wishes to go back to the deck to be with the woman. As a viewer, you think, “Okay, he wants to spend his last moments with his wife.” Then, as he’s running towards the woman on the deck, he recognizes one of the men who held him hostage. As this happens, he realizes there’s no way to escape time and comes to the realization that this was the moment when he died as a young boy. I did not see this coming at all. What an amazing twist at the end of the movie to really catch the viewer off guard. This gif below describes exactly how I felt at the end.
The film may lack visually as it was filmed in 1962, but the plot is riveting and definitely keeps the viewer’s attention throughout the piece. Chris Marker does a remarkable job building the relationship of the man and the woman throughout the piece which makes the viewer contemplate the nature of their relationship. Then, Marker allows the viewer to realize that this woman was the last person that the man saw before his death as a child. I was skeptical of this piece at first due to the still images, but La Jetée certainly exceeded my expectations.
To view the film in English, you can watch the video given below.
To view the cast and learn more about La Jetée, the link to the film on IMDB can be found here.
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