Synopsis
Chris MARKER created La Jetée (The Pier), comprised entirely of still shot photography. (MARKER adopted "Photo-Roman," the latest technique at that time, and he used this in Si j'avais quatre dromadaires (If I Had Four Dromedaries) that predicted 68 Revolution. The motive of this film is a man who came from the future dies before his lover and a young boy, which is him, and as widely known, this inspired Terry GILLIAM's 12 Monkeys. But La Jetée is dedicated to HITCHCOCK's Vertigo. For example, a scene that the leading character and his lover staring at a sequoia obviously comes from the scene that Madeleine engraves her birthplace and deathplace on an annual ring of sequoia. MARKER said "vertigo" of La Jetée is a metaphor generated from the process of time travel rather than the fear to fall. MARKER also wrote that the time travel would prevent evil ELSTER in Vertigo from committing a perfect crime. An Utopia re-invented San Francisco in a new time frame and raises loved ones from the dead. Before this, another Scottie in La Jetée gets dizzy for vertigo and falls. On the other hand, for MARKER, creating image and space for a film is a road linking to reality. MARKER looked for time and space in reality such as labor disputes in 1968 through Le Joli Mai and Le Fond de l'air est rouge (Grin without a cat). Furthermore, in the 1980s~90s, he creates new time and space through Sans soleil and Level Five.