La Jetée (1962) - The Criterion Collection

Synopsis

Chris Marker, filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor, and now videographer and digital multimedia artist, has been challenging moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his complex queries about time, memory, and the rapid advancement of life on this planet. Marker’s La Jetée is one of the most influential, radical science-fiction films ever made, a tale of time travel told in still images.

Cast

The Woman	Hélène Chatelain
The Man	Davos Hanich
	Jacques Ledoux

Credits

Director	Chris Marker
Screenplay	Chris Marker
Producer	Anatole Dauman
Music	Trevor Duncan
Editing	Jean Ravel

Disc Features

GUILLAUME-APPROVED EDITION

New, restored high-definition digital transfers of both La Jetée and Sans Soleil, approved by director Chris Marker
New video interview with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin
Chris on Chris, a video piece on Marker by filmmaker and critic Chris Darke
Two excerpts from the French TV series Court-circuit (le magazine), directed by Luc Lagier: the first, a look at David Bowie’s music video for “Jump They Say,” inspired by La Jetée; the second, an analysis of Hitchcock’s Vertigo and its influences on Marker
Both films presented in two versions: English and French with English subtitles
New and improved English subtitle translations

From the Current

Still Life on Film

Mar 5, 2010

Starting today and running through Sunday, March 14, London’s Tate Modern investigates the relationship between photography and the moving image in a fascinating series entitled PhotoFilm, showcasing films that make the still photograph central to their narrative or aesthetic. In six thematic . . .

Chris Marker’s Second Life

May 13, 2009

It doesn’t really come as a surprise that Chris Marker is a devoted inhabitant of the virtual world Second Life. After all, one could . . .

La Jetée: Unchained Melody

by Jonathan Romney Jun 25, 2007

However you define Chris Marker's 1963 short La Jetée—philosophical fiction, genre exercise, treatise on cinematic time—one fact is unavoidable: it resembles few other films. In fact, La Jetée does not define itself as a film at all—its credits identify it as “un photo-roman . . .

Chris Marker: Memory’s Apostle

by Catherine Lupton Jun 25, 2007

La Jetée (1963) and Sans Soleil (1983) made a tidy twenty years apart, are the twin peaks of Chris Marker’s creative achievements and his best-loved and most widely seen films. But who is Chris Marker? Writer, photographer, editor, filmmaker, videographer, and digital multimedia . . .