La Jetée: French New Wave's 1962 Sci-Fi Classic

As always there are spoilers ahead!

 

A quick note that I shall be at the London Film Festival on October the 16^th giving a whistlestop tour of sci-fi cinema. It is a free event but you have to reserve tickets so if you happen to be in London and wanted to attend here is the information.

 

Translation for the beginning of the podcast:

“Later, he knew he had seen a man die.

And sometime after came the destruction of Paris.”

 

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La Jetée is very different from the science fiction films I have covered so far. A 28-minute art film mostly made of still images that went on to inspire many films as well as the 1995 12 Monkeys. The filmmaker, Chris Marker was an elusive French multimedia journalist, artist, writer, filmmaker, photographer who very rarely did interviews. He was part of the Left Bank group in Paris which was part of the larger French New Wave movement.

 

My amazing science fiction authorities today are Lisa Yaszek who is Regents' Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech and has written/edited multiple books on science fiction and Mark Bould who is a professor of Film and Literature at the University of West England, Bristol. He has also written/edited numerous books on science fiction.

 

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

02:15 The French New Wave

08:50 The New Wave of science fiction literature

13:00 The New Wave science fiction films

17:53 Vertigo’s influence

21:10 Eros and Thanatos: Love and death (and time loops)