La Jetée (Marker, Korea, 1962) – Analysis Sheet for Evaluative Commentary
Part 1: Brief Reference
| What did you like about the film? I liked its unique use of photos edited together rather than one continuous video. I also liked the style of shots used focusing on light and dark. | What didn’t you like? I didn’t like how it was hard to follow, you had to focus on it to understand it. I also didn’t like how the characters had no dialogue. |
| What ideas could you use? Narrative or style? I could use the idea of still black and white shots to create a almost moving image. | What ideas won’t you use? Why? Maybe not the vague voiceover as I found it difficult to understand what was happening. |
Part 2: In-Depth Study – Narrative
| Narrative Feature | Example | Your own example |
| Establishing protagonist – what information do we find out? How is it conveyed? | Introduced only in narration – first in third person as “a man marked by an image”; then in first person -memory of incident at the airport. We don’t see him until the first experiment is shown. This shows how core the act of remembering is to his identity – indeed we find out very little about him (he remains nameless) apart from his ‘remembering’ (even when he is travelling in time). | This man is introduced as a protagonist but not as the most powerful being within the film which is unconventional for films where heroes usually come out on top. He is represented as a dull and depressed man this is shown through his introduction, his introduction being him as a child watching a man die on the pier, with his characters baseline being a negative traumatic experience it allows the audience to understand that his storyline is going to match that of his introduction and become full circle. He is a depressive and melancholy character, and his experience haunts the narrative. |
| Establishing other characters – what information do we find out? How is it conveyed? | The Woman is the first person we see (“the only image to survive the war”) – and she is defined only by the fact the narrator remembers her. Feminist critics may comment on the fact she barely seems to exist outside the experiences of the narrator and her growing belief in him. | The woman in this movie is the only woman conveyed through. This could mean not many women being left due to the nucellar destruction or it could relate to the stereotypical ideology that woman cannot do technological things such as time travel and is only represented for love. Her character seems to add a positive twist to the plot, her character seems to lift the narrative’s mood when mentioned or featured. The choice of real rolling footage being her represents and reenforces the idea that she is the key within this story, she is present for his life and death and is a key factor within both those things within both of those things. |
| Establishing location (time and place) – what information do we find out? How is it conveyed? | We are told immediately that the location is Paris. The bombed out wreckage of the city (real WW2 images) don’t immediately establish that this is the future until the narrator mentions radiation. The underground location beneath the Palais de Chaillot is shown by intercut images of broken cherubs and other sculptures. | We discover that the place this is set is through of establishing shots, an example being the Eiffel tower surrounded by the wreckage and damages, establishing to the audience where it is set and also what is happening in the time of the film |
| Creating Enigmas – what are they? How are they created? | The image the narrator obsesses over is the central enigma: who is the man he witnesses dying? How does he die? Who is the woman? The still images and voiceover powerfully evoke the nature of memory. | What other questions are posed throughout the narrative? I think there are many questions throught the narrative, the key ones i have is…when this man comes back from the past does this place freeze in time as it only exists because he has gone to it. Did the man who shopt him send him there to meet that woman purposely or unintentionally. Why kill him at the end, is it because he chose to go back to the past, why kill him? |
| Narrative binary oppositions | The ‘Living Present’ vs Past/Future. As the film progresses, what constitutes the ‘present’ (for the protagonist) seems to shift from his dystopian subterranean society to the ‘past’ of pre-apocalypse Paris. This is conveyed by the faster rhythm of the montage and the sequence (18:00-18:49) where the images almost become like traditional cinema. | I think a dominate binary opposition ideoligy represented in this film is the idea between peace and war. I think the sheer stark contrast between the effects of war on people and the effects of people due to love is very key. The idea that hate drives some people’s motives and love and peace drives others. It gives off them (scientists) vs me (the main man) vibe. |
| Crisis – how was this conveyed? | Is it the first experiment? The moment the man spots the woman from the airport? Or is it when the future society offers him the chance to escape to the future? | What do you think is the crisis point? How does this affect the rest of the narrative? I believe the crisis point is when he realizes that he is the man he saw shot on the pier, the realization that he is the reality of his worst nightmare. |
| Resolution – is it closed or open narrative? | The narrative is closed – but it is also in a loop: the narrator is both the dying man and the child watching the scene. This ‘time paradox’ has inspired films as diverse as The Terminator and Looper (as well as 12 Monkeys which is almost a remake). | What do you think about the end? Is it closed – or endlessly circular? I believe visibly the story is closed and ended as the man is dead. However, i believe there is a lot of plot holes as to what characters did certain things for. |
Part 3: Meaning and Effect
| What did you think was the intention of the filmmaker(s)? Intellectual message? Emotional response? Everyone is trapped in their time – they cannot escape it, even through memory. It is also about concept of photography and cinema itself, trying to ‘freeze’ time with images despite time always being in motion. | How was this achieved? The use of photomontage separates each frame of the story into a frozen image – even though these are joined together using traditional narrative film techniques such as voiceover, dissolves, fades and music. As the man begins to ‘live’ more and more in the ‘past’ with his lover, the space between these frames speeds up to resemble ‘motion picture’ speed at one point. The stuffed animals in the museum are also ‘frozen’ in a single moment. Your own idea: I think the pint of la Jetée is to highlight our unknowing and how naive we are to what could be happening around us without our knowledge. |
| Aesthetic binary oppositions The use of still photo images are combined with traditional narrative cinematic techniques that bring them ‘to life’… until the moment around 18:00 when they flow together. | Effect of these oppositions? Shows the intensity of emotion the narrator feels with his lover: like he is finally ‘living’ in moving time rather than a series of frozen, separated moments. Your example: I think the opposition in this film shows how happy just one person could make you and change yor life. |
Inspirations – what ideas did this film give you for your own short film?
| Establishing characters, setting, plot, theme To establish setting i like the idea of photo like elements. | Creating enigmas I like the use of a plot this with a unresolved narrative |
| Narrative structure (non-/linear? Open/ closed ending?) I like the use on non liner narrative | Striking use of technical features |
