Today in class, we watched "La Jatee", a movie made in 1962 by Chris Marker. The movie was interesting in that it was almost entirely created as a photo-montage.
This movie immediately caught my attention in the beginning with all of the old photographs of rubble and destruction after Paris was bombed. Once it caught my attention and started to progress further into the film, I noticed that it reminded me of a movie that had been recommended to me by one of my professors this past year. This film was "12 Monkeys" and as I learned later in class, was based on the themes and concepts presented in "La Jatee".
I felt that both of these films were cleverly crafted in that they required all of my attention and kept me on the edge of my seat. I feel like I will have to watch the film a few more times to understand the concept in a greater depth. However, towards the end of the movie, pieces started to fit together. I noticed that he had already died and everything that he was experiencing could probably be understood as the concept of "In Limbo". He still had aspects of his life that he was not ready to let go of. I also feel that he did not think he was fully prepared for his death, so he still needed to find a sense of peace.
In the beginning, or the "10th day", he felt a sense of emptiness, which was slowly filled over the course of a month or so. Throughout the experimentation process, I felt like the main character was feeling a skewed representation of time. It was also said that he felt great deals of pain as well as the sensation of feeling somewhat ghostly. He knew that his presence was not entirely there, however he still felt a reasoning behind it. I found the whole concept of this experimentation process very interesting in that it was not a conventional view of the sensation of death. As this experimentation continued, his "dreams" began to change. Eventually, around the "50th day" or so, he found himself on a distant planet. On this planet he encountered others whom had also traveled in time. I feel that this encounter was his first sense of the afterlife, meeting other individuals whom had already found peace in death.
In the end, he was granted to see the moment of his own death when he was brought back to the memory of the pier. This stage was a very significant piece of his experience with the "experiments". After this whole "experimentation" process, I feel that he was finally prepared to experience the reality of what was actually going on. I feel that this was the part that he finally realized why he had felt so distanced from the woman he loved as well as the reason for feeling ghostly.
I look forward to watching this film at least a few more times and picking up on pieces to the puzzle that I might have missed.
But, for now, this is the way that I have interpreted the story.
Bonsoir!
