La Jetee and Sans Soleil (1962)

La Jetée is seen as the sole inspiration of the Terry Gillian film, 12 monkeys. Clocking in at only 28 minutes, it tells the story of a time traveller in post- war Paris, the subject of a series of time experiments by sinister scientists. Made almost entirely from still images, La Jetée is a poignant tale but reminds us how even the end of the world cannot defeat love. The film was made several months prior to the Cuban missile crisis, a time when cold war tensions were at breaking point and many people were genuinely scared of a nuclear holocaust. This film puts into context the bleak, overhanging sense of doom at the time and how people presumably dealt with the revelation of imminent war using their own personal store of happier times Director and Camera man Chris Marker [a recluse in real life(perhaps a 'tortured genius')] beautifully creates Sans Soleil, encapsulating some form of beauty in every scene, whether it is the minimalistic Japanese metropolis or the textured streets of Africa. Each scene is saturated with colour creating intense vibrancy, personified in the retro games in the cafe scene. The direction is effortless, moving fluently from continent to continent while losing the stone structure many directors follow like a worm compared to a centipede. Each scene is totally unique and often bizarre: A robotic JFK, a temple of cats and a protest created out of stock footage. Throughout the film a narrator explains how the images are significant to our greater understanding. Admittedly, most of these concepts went way over my head but the recurring theme (in both films) is that memories are what define us and shape history but as memories are tangible only to individuals, we each interpret the world in our own way. Each peron who watches the films will perceive the images differently in their own unique way.