La JETEE

(vt The Jetty; vt The Pier)

   Short film (1963). Argos/Arcturus Films. Produced, written and dir Chris Marker, starring Helene Chatelain, Jacques Ledoux, Davos Hanich. 29 mins. B/w.

   This celebrated French short film is often seen as a breakthrough in sf narration that has yet to be equalled. With voice-over narration and composed entirely of still photographs(though there is one brief sequence - a close-up of a girl winking - that gives the impression of movement) the film is nearer in theme and approach to the NEW-WAVE sf of the 1960s than to traditional TIME-TRAVEL stories in the CINEMA or in literature. Set in a post- HOLOCAUST Paris where the concept of passing time is disappearing and the principle of cause-and-effect is therefore being lost, this subtle and complex film shows an attempt being made to send back in time a man obsessed by his memory of a woman's face, since the existence of memory suggests that time still exists for him. He is also sent into the future where he finds the remembered face is a witness to his own death.

   JB/PN