Over the years, I had heard of the name Chris Marker, as an avante-garde filmmaker, but having sat through many lost hours, in my early twenties, watching Warhol Factory films and their dread knockoffs, one can understand why I was never particularly moved to engage the films of this man; especially considering that he was French, from that nation that launched the careers of such notable filmic failures as Jean Cocteau and Jean-Luc Godard. But, then I did something amazing. I actually dropped my biases, and watched and engaged the work of art before me (or, technically, the two works of art), and let it, not the opinions of others, dictate my reaction.
And that reaction was overwhelmingly positive. La Jetee (The Jetty), made in 1963, which clocks in at barely 28 minutes, is a flat out great film, and Sans Soleil, made in 1983, which comes in at just about 103 minutes in length, just misses that mark, primarily because it is too long, and sags about 60% of the way through. If it were 60-70 minutes long, it, too, would be an unquestionably great film. La Jetee is credited with being the influence behind Terry Gilliam’s 1995 film 12 Monkeys, but it’s influenced many other time travel films as well, most notably The Terminator film series, and the PBS version of Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Lathe Of Heaven.
But, why it works is that it is a film based solely on still photographs admixed with voiceover narration, save for one several second scene of the main female character blinking. What is so good about the film is that it shows how superfluous much of the ‘motion’ in motion pictures is. Film, after all, is a medium founded and nurtured by the written word. Without a good screenplay, a film is just shadows on a wall.
The story is very basic: a child witnesses the murder of a man at the Orly Airport, south of Paris, at the titular airplane jetty, and is struck by the beauty of the face of the woman (Hélène Chatelain) the man was headed toward. Years go by, and World War Three occurs. Paris is destroyed in a nuclear exchange (likely caused by Germany, since incidental German is muttered in the film), and the surviving members of humanity head underground. A band of rogue scientists hopes to ensure human survival by traveling back in time to secure goods needed for that survival. The boy, now a grown man (Davos Hanich), is chosen for the experiment because in order to go back in time the person needs to have a strong connection.
Article comments
1 - Dave
Of course it is inconceivable to Mr. Schneider that the film may be about BOTH memory and perception.
But of course, then he wouldn't have anything to act smug and superior about whilst talking about other critics.
2 - io
couldnt agree more with the previous comment. the films are about both memory and perception.
from the moment i read him stating that vertigo is an overrated movie i knew i couldnt take him seriously.
3 - Outofyourmind
Quoting: "one can understand why I was never particularly moved to engage the films of this man; especially considering that he was French, from that nation that launched the careers of such notable filmic failures as Jean Cocteau and Jean-Luc Godard."
So you would never have watched French cinema because of a whole 2 French directors being failures? Surely that's not very constructive discrimination? That would mean that you wouldn't watch any American cinema on the grounds of how much junk they put out every week? I think American cinema is great, don't you agree?
Cocteau a failure? Please develop... compared to what? Compared to "Terminator" in terms of box office numbers (since you mentioned Terminator in your critic)? What makes you say such a gratuitous, ignorant thing? The guy invented more than most can today with more technology and everyone at the time looked at him as the way forward for the new cinema... Get your head out of your brainwashed box, forget what you learned in the all-good-thinking schools and cinema academies (what's that suppose to mean anyway?) and embrace!
4 - El Bicho
Here's one that doesn't understand that reasoning
5 - what?
Film, after all, is a medium founded and nurtured by the written word. Without a good screenplay, a film is just shadows on a wall."