La Jetee

La Jetee...I LOVED it. Unlike anything i've ever seen before, this French new wave film was fascinating to watch, delicious to listen to (mmm French accent) and mind-boggling to comprehend. Composed almost entirely of black and white still frame photographs the film enveloped and entranced me from the beginning up until the inclusion of one slow moving frame of 'the woman' laying in bed. To be completely honest, i was so engrossed in the story by now that i wasn't sure whether i had imagined the movement or actually seen it!





But, enough of the girly, flowery stuff and on to the boggling of the mind. I was immediately drawn into the film with the concept of World War 3. What would prompt a third world war? What would fuel it? What weapons, technology, nations and people would be involved? No sooner had theses questions begun to intrigue me then the answer was presented. All encompassing nuclear holocaust. With minimal resources, scientists entombed beneath the ruins of Paris are searching for salvation through the single avenue left open – Time. (http://www.film.u-net.com/Movies/Reviews/Jetee.html). Released in 1962, this film epitomizes a society’s cries of: What if? What would we do with the threat of nuclear holocaust and how would we utilise the “tools of our time” for survival? Perhaps La Jetee is presented as a preview into future technological genius.



Such time travel seems to us 21st centurians to be unfathomable. But let’s think about it, how unfathomable must a motor vehicle, a TV or the all knowing internet have been way back when? It’s all so space age now, but “space age” may soon be “the age”!