Screening Log: April 16

La Jette
Directed by Chris Marker
Written by Chris Marker
Starring: Jean Négroni, Hélène Chatelain, Davos Hanich

Three stars (out of four)

Summary: After the Earth has been demolished by a world war, the survivors start sending people back in time, including one man who is still haunted by a childhood memory that will, of course, prove fateful.

Short take: Serving as the basis for the full-length Twelve Monkeys, this short is actually manages to make avant-garde film techniques interesting. Composed entirely of a photo montage with a narrative voice-over, La Jette is visually interesting, but it's a story that's simply too complex for its style. The most successful offbeat films tend to be those that don't feature such a rigid narrative, and perhaps a more loose story would have served this film well. As it is, there are fantastic elements at work here, just not ones that ultimately gel into something better.