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Few thrillers captivated audiences like Terry Gilliams 12 Monkeys. The 1995 masterpiece was a resounding success that pleased audiences and critics alike. It won multiple awards, many of which were centered around its unique sci-fi plot. After all, not many science fiction works dig into the psychological twists of the thriller genre. However, that acclaimed narrative was inspired by a film few know, although Gillam cites the title in 12 Monkeys opening credits.

That source is, specifically, a 1962 French film, La Jete. At just twenty-eight minutes long, Chris Markers experimental piece is nowhere near the scale of 12 Monkeys. It lacks much recognizable dialogue beyond plain narration, and its cinematography is comparable to a slideshow. So, how did this black-and-white art film morph into an American classic? Moreover, how did such a film become a pivotal force in modern science fiction?

La Jete Pushed the Boundaries of 1960s Cinema

Visually, La Jete is nothing particularly special.

Stars: Jacques Ledoux, Davos Hanich, Jean Négroni, Hélène Chatelain, Alexandra Stewart | Written and Directed by Chris Marker

La Jetee is Chris Marker’s 1962 mini sci-fi film. It tells the story of the aftermath of World War 3, and the survivors living underground. A scientist (Jacques Ledoux) performs experiments in time travel, so a man (Davos Hanich) can go and fetch food and medical supplies.

The film is almost entirely composed of monochrome still images. It’s a form that requires a narrator (Jean Négroni) to explain everything at every moment, which makes you wonder what the images – many of which are library pictures depicting real-world destruction – really add to the piece. I wonder also if such a film were made today, making use of the devastation in, say, Syria, then it would be seen as tasteless and crass.

Still, it’s an arresting montage. By using still images, Marker circumvents normal...

In Chris Marker’s groundbreaking 1962 time travel film La Jetee, the woman (Helene Chatelain) in the film refers to the films time-traveling protagonist (Davos Hanich) as a ghost. Later in the film, the man realizes that as a child he witnessed his own death at the hands of a time traveling assassin. La Jetee in many ways became the first time traveling ghost story. Director Rian Johnson has regarded La Jetee as one of the inspirations for his new film Looper.

Time travel films are the greatest ghost stories science fiction has to offer. The very idea of people from the future and past commingling with people in the present offers countless waves of possible interweaving conflict. The logic of time travel itself in these films is often thoughtfully constructed and mind-numbingly complex. Luckily, Rian Johnson is a fan and student of sci-fi film, so with Looper he’s constructed...

The director of La Jetée, who has died aged 91, was famously reclusive – yet he left a generous legacy of cinematic genius

Chris Marker, who died this week at the age of 91, was a great film-maker who often made cinematic tombeaux, commemorations of other great film-makers. Andrei Tarkovsky and Alexander Medvedkin became such subjects shortly after their passing, the films a consolidation of the regret that death always brings. It is apparent in the very opening of The Last Bolshevik (1993), Marker's study of Medvedkin, when we see the Russian rebuking the person behind the camera: "You lazy bastard, why don't you write – just a few lines, like this?", holding up his hand to show the scant space between thumb and forefinger. If Medvedkin's passing a few years previously had prompted that tribute, then the death of the man behind the camera, Chris Marker, will no doubt occasion many more.

For me,...

La Jetée

Directed by Chris Maker

Written by Chris Maker

France, 1962

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, Chris Maker’s La Jetée is worthy of a novel. His 28-minute featurette, composed almost entirely of stark black and white photos, tells a haunting, forlorn romance in an arresting tableau of images. Avant garde in almost every way imaginable, La Jetée was an experimental picture that has since become a landmark and blue print for future science fiction films.

The story is set after the nuclear fallout of World War Three, where a man (Davos Hanich) is held prisoner in the decaying, murky underground of post-apocalyptic Paris. Along with other inmates, he is considered a ‘guinea pig’, a subject in a science experiment to go back in time and warn the past of the future.

While others are unable to withstand the trauma of time travel, the man, because of...

Well we all knew this would happen. Back in February, when Criterion announced their epic digital streaming partnership with Hulu, they also quietly revealed that their streaming options on Netflix would be coming to an end over the course of the next year. While I haven’t been paying close attention to the Criterion Collection films that have been expiring since that announcement was made, I thought it would be helpful to all of you loyal Netflix subscribers to know that in about twelve days, 26 titles will be expiring on the 26th of May, 2011.

I’ve gone and linked to all of the titles below, so you can click on the cover art or the text, and be taken to their corresponding Netflix pages. While this isn’t everything that Criterion has to offer on Netflix, it is a nice chunk of really important films. If you don’t currently have a Netflix subscription,...

Why Watch? Because sometimes we have to understand the past to understand the present. That goes for our favorite films as well. This short film, created in 1962 by Chris Marker, was the inspiration for Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys. It’s done entirely in black and white with stunning still photography – the story told by a deep-throated narrator. And that story? In Paris, after World War III, a man informs our hero that mankind is doomed and that the only salvation lies in time travel. What Will It Cost? Just 26 minutes of your time. Does it get better any better than that? Check out La Jetée for yourself: La Jetee (1962) Written and Directed By: Chris Marker Starring: Jean Négron, Hélène Chatelain, Davos Hanich, and Jacques Ledoux Trust us. You have time for more short films.