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La Jetée
Set in a post-apocalyptic near-future, La Jetée tells the story of an unnamed man whose vivid childhood recollections make him the perfect guinea pig for an experiment in time travel. After a lengthy and nightmarish period of conditioning, he is sent into the past, where he falls in love with a woman whom he once saw on a pier.
A milestone in film history, this short was made by French filmmaker Chris Marker, often referred to as the “creator of the film essay”. Marker, whose private life is little known, was just like Alain Resnais and Agnès Varda, part of the French Rive Gauche group—parallel to but distinct from the Nouvelle Vague.
Told almost entirely through a montage of still photographs, there are several theories about the correct reading of this science-fiction film, which regularly appears in ‘best films of all time’ lists; probably, all are somewhat correct. A formalist experiment on the one hand, an atmospheric fable on the other, La Jetée is a singular experience.
Bio Chris Marker
Chris Marker (France, 1921-2012) was a writer, poet, photographer, multimedia artist, and documentary filmmaker. He began his career as part of the French Rive Gauche group—parallel to but distinct from the Nouvelle Vague—with which he would later share certain themes and collaborators. Marker is considered a pioneer of subjective documentary and collective cinema. His films, such as La Jetée (1962) and Sans soleil (1983), are known for their poetic, essayistic, and often experimental qualities, blending a reflective voice with a fascination for memory, art, war, and politics. Over six decades of work, he observed the world with meticulous curiosity, irony, and compassion, continually experimenting with new forms of image manipulation and montage.
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- This film was #1 in the “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025voted by Maike Höhne, Kornél Szilágyi, Hadi Alipanah, Yorgos Angelopoulos, Giselle Lin, Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer, Didi Cheeka, Oana Ghera, Yun-hua Chen, Radu Jude, Arta Barzanji, Salome Lamas, Tianyu Jiang, Srikanth Srinivasan, Najrin Islam, Dora Leu, Veton Nurkollari, Juan Barquin, Rubén Corral Giménez, Öykü Sofuoğlu, Jason Tan Liwag, Ivan Ramljak, Leonardo Pirondi, Paul Landriau, Sofia Topi, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Ngọc Duy Lê, Jose Cabrera, Matti Ullrich, Nuno Rodrigues, Ben Nicholson, Scott Hoy, Olivia Hunter Willke, Bart Versteirt, Gerald Weber, Ana Bilankov, Ryan Swen, Edith van der Heijde, Patrick Gamble, Helen Faradji, Sven Pötting, Eroll Bilibani, Anas Sareen, Wim Vanacker, Henni Berger, Koen de Rooij, Naomi Pacifique, Joana Gusmão, Cátia Rodrigues, Laurence Boyce, Carlos Velandia, Michiel Philippaerts, Eneos Çarka, Azin Feizabadi, Jason Anderson, Simone Bardoni