La jetée

The film that we watched on class today is La Jatee, a French film in 1962. 

It was the time that the World War III had broken out, a man who had seen a man died in front of him in his childhood survive in the war but was sent to a time travel experiment. He was sent to the age before the war, at this time, he met a woman on the parking apron and fell in love with her. When the experiment was coming to the end, the people who came from another planet found him and gave him a chance to go to future to avoid the disaster. However, the man rejected, and requested to back to the past where his lover is. The last time when he was sent to the past, suddenly he understood the man who died before him in his childhood was himself. Finally, he cannot escape the time but die.

The most different point in this film is that it describes the story by still photos. However, I think the still photos film has the stronger emotion than the normal films, because the actors always freeze when they have sudden facial expression, which make the story more convincing. The film is short with 28 minutes long, so it is too brief to describe this complicated story, which makes people sometimes feel confused about the plot. The whole film gives people a sense of upset because of the background music, the strict face and the whisper when the experiment was in progress. Although the man was meeting his lover, the background music was still sentimental. In addition, I wonder how the man knew where he could meet the woman, and I think this had not been told in the film. All in all, I think this is a classic film, because it influences the later films like 12 Monkeys. 

Youtube Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezkAeQuUqCg&list=PL4zB97re_0BHr_2_fcshOSNrfGn-TJ_5L&index=36