Marguerite LeDragon In this film, a prisoner in miserable post-apocalyptic Paris is selected by his captors based on his dreams and used in time travel experiments. He falls in love in the world of his past, watched all the while by his captors, but at the end of the experiments is marked by them for death.The film is less than thirty minutes long and uniquely presented as a series of stills with a soundtrack and voice-over. While that might sound boring, in fact the film feels as real and gripping as a normal motion picture, while creating a unique haunting mood, half like a historical documentary and half like a dream. The protagonists drifts between the world, past or dream, where he is happy and in love, and his inescapable reality where he is blindfolded and even his thoughts are spied on. Binding it all together is the memory of an excursion to the airport as a young boy, watching a beautiful woman and then witnessing a tragedy.If I was going to say that the film has a weakness, it's that the experimenters letting him apparently indulge himself for so long without any tangible results feels implausible. I'm of two minds about the Nazi like captors - on one hand, the mumbling in German while he's being experimented on is terrifying but, on the other hand, it feels lazy to go with an image clearly from WWII in concocting WWIII.The movie lends itself to multiple interpretation. At first viewing, I thought the people of the future represented progress as giving up doomed emotions and desires, and the protagonist shows himself to be not enlightened. But on second, the people of the future are perhaps supposed to be creepy and unwise, an extension of his current captors with their love of technology and power, and the movie is rather representing technological totalitarianism as inescapable, except on the level of transient but meaningful emotions.Definitely a must-see - especially at less than a half-hour to watch.

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) It simply is not working as this is, by definition, not a "motion picture". "La jetée" or "The Pier" is a black-and-white film that runs for slightly under 30 minutes and is over 50 years old now. The writer and director is Chris Marker. Do not be confused by his name for he is as French as this half hour in terms of narration and style. There are references about human experiments, time travel, ruins and the usual components like love, war and death. The way this is made, namely a collection of photos, is probably the main reason why I was not impressed at all. The love story did not touch me and I was not sad when I found out that he is not gonna see her again as his next travels will be to the future. His death at the end felt really rushed as well. i was fairly disappointed with it. The format has proved unappealing enough and that is why directors these days just do normal movies and not photo book stuff like this. Not recommended unless you became curious about it after watching "12 Monkeys".

Dalbert Pringle Directed by French film-maker, Chris Marker, La Jetee is a horribly dry and uninspired Sci-Fi story which takes place at the onset of WW3.There are no spectacular images in this film. There is no dialogue, either.La Jetee's story is told through tedious narration.There is no live action. It is all just b&w stills whose images are recycled more than once.Thank goodness La Jetee was only 27 minutes long (it seemed to drag on for hours).And thank goodness this sort of idiot concept of film-making didn't catch on.La Jetee's story is neither deep nor philosophical. Although I strongly suspect that director Marker believed himself to be creating a real masterpiece of cinematic intellectualism.For me, the only way to watch this dismally dreary picture was in fast-forward mode.

Cyniphile To give more meaning to my review, this is one of about five films that I have given ten stars out of the hundreds I've rated. La Jetee is about the only art film I recommend widely. It does not indulge in vague artistry, cryptic and boring wanderings which you are left to decipher. La Jetee if it is anything, is a highly tuned piece of film engineered to lead any viewer in the right mindset on a carefully planed emotional journey. There's no filler; it's only 28 minutes. All of the "artsy" features of the film, especially the photo-montage style are executed with a very clear intention in the task of stirring up within the viewer a strong emotion... ***How to watch this movie***Might be useful if you are not used to art films. Take in La Jetee still after still. Let each image (and especially *the* image of the woman) wash over your mind in context of the story being told. Don't try to understand every detail, but do try to understand the story (which can be confusing since it involves time travel). Most of all be open to feeling, maybe even crying. This might mean it is better watch alone where there is no pressure to keep it together. This film is best if you let it tear you apart.