Memories and The Nature of Reality: Analyzing Chris Marker's "La Jetee"
The film 'La Jetee' by Chris Marker is a film that brings up many questions about memories and their relationship to human life. Are memories reality? What constitutes the difference between dream and reality in memory? Is life merely a collection of memories? What is the true relationship between time and space? Although 'La Jetee' brings up many questions about the subjective nature of reality, it also makes many statements about the nature of memory and its relationship with life and film. At its core, the film is about a time traveller, but perhaps there is more to it than that. 'La Jetee' is a film about life; a film about living life through memories. In the same way that the story relies on the memories of the main character, the film relies on the memories of the viewer.
The nature of the relationship between memory and film can be felt after viewing the film. As one recalls 'La Jetee', the imagery is so vivid it is as though it could be a memory from your own life rather than that of a film. This is achieved through a combination of imagery, editing, sound, lighting and composition. By using a still rather than a moving image, the film is suggesting that memories are fragmented. Through this fragmented reality presented in the film, the viewer creates their own action inspired by the imagery and narration. In remembering 'La Jetee', one can't help but to reconstruct the images of the film as they are presented by the filmmaker. The techniques employed by Marker help to influence the memories of the viewer and cement the images of the film as part of their own memory.
If Marker is correct in his assumptions about life and memories, then the experience of watching 'La Jetee' should create the same types of memories as a film with movement. If memories are made up of images and emotions, then the fragmented reality presented by Marker should be received in the same way as any other film. It is from this that the questions between the relationship of life and memory rise. As one recalls the film, it becomes clear that Marker is in fact successful with his attempt to present the film through still images. It also becomes clear that the film is so powerful that one feels as though they have experienced the events of the film themselves.
Throughout the film, memory serves as the starting point for time travel. The main character is selected because of his fixation on a memory from his past; the image of a woman at the airport jetty. This image becomes central to the framework of the man's movement through time, as this woman becomes a starting point for his time travel experiences. Because of his fixation with the image from his past, he is able to deal with the abrupt changes in space and time necessary for time travel. It becomes apparent that this woman, whom he has no memories with, is what allows the time traveller to accept this experience. Her constant presence in the traveler's past is what anchors him to the present and allows him to comprehend the time travel as he would a memory. It is as though Marker is attempting to create a parallel between memory and time travel. By using the image from his prominent memory in the time travel experiments, Marker is suggesting that time is a function of our minds. The image from the past allows the traveler to accept the transition through space and time and keep him grounded in the present.
With these parallels between memory and time travel, the theme of a subjective world becomes an important aspect of the film. Is the man traveling through time or simply dreaming of the woman from his past? The question of whether he is dreaming or not rises as the man seems to be present in both times simultaneously. At one point in the film, the man begins to fade back into the present, but is given another injection before he can make the transition. His presence in both the past and present signify that it is the mind that is traveling through time rather than the body. If he is in fact dreaming, then it would suggest a reality that is based on the human experience rather than space and time. Through his dreams it is possible that he is able to travel backwards through time to this woman, and reconstruct reality around that memory. Once he is able to achieve agency in his dreams, he is ready. By falling in love with the woman, and being sure of his love, the man took a leap from observer to agent. He is no longer a passive force in these experiments and is creating memories with the woman that did not exist before. From this, it is concluded that he is better defended from the past (Jacob). His ability to find love in the past signifies his acceptance of the new reality.
The editing style of the film is another aspect which demands attention. The film is made up of still images edited together through dissolves and fades to black. These techniques help to create a fragmented reality made up of images rather than movement. A good example of this fragmentation can be seen in sequence in which the woman is sleeping in bed. The sequence is made up of many close-ups of the woman sleeping along with the only moving image of the film where the woman wakes up and opens her eyes. The woman moves throughout the frame as each shot dissolves into the next. The dissolves between the still images take the place of movement while signifying the passage of time. This style of editing disrupts the continuity and presents a fragmented reality in which the passage of time is unclear (Bensmaia:140). The use of imagery and editing in the film make it as if 'La Jetee' were a memory itself.
Memory is fragmented, made up of imagery and linked with emotions. The film feels like something from our own past; it feels like a memory. By using still images and one brief moment of movement in which the woman wakes up, Marker is attempting to tap into the viewers own sub-conscious and connect with their own memories. This technique is effective in that; as one recalls the film we think of it in the same way we do the films with action. The persistent dissolves force the viewer to fill in the action themselves as they watch the film. It also creates its own movement that along with the narration provides an emotional experience in which one finds themselves greatly involved with the images (Bensmaia:141). As one commits the film to memory they find themselves remembering the action which they have created rather than remembering the film as a series of photographs. Because of this it almost seems as if the events in the film happened to the viewer. The images of the film seep into the sub-conscious and become a part of our own memory almost like a weird dream we might have had. The fades to black become breaks for us to digest the images we have just seen, as if to say we must blind ourselves before we can truly see (Bensmaia:145). In blinding the audience by fading to black, Marker has helped to push them further into the story, immersing them into the imagery and cementing the images into their own memories.
Composition also plays a part in how one remembers the film. In the underground, there is little light. The faces are harshly illuminated in a sea of blackness. The high contrast creates a sense of dread in the underground that makes the viewer question their surroundings. As one remembers the film we know little about the underground other than it is dark. This mystery around the present highlights the disconnect between the main character and the world around him. Because he is so fixated on the image from the past, the world around him is filled with darkness. The absence of light almost makes the scenes more real, as they touch upon the emotions of the viewer and allow them to connect the scene to their own life. The faces of the experimenters are often covered by shadows. This creates mystery behind the experiments and causes the viewer to distrust the experimenters and sympathize with the time traveler. Similar to the present, the future is also dark, providing great mystery toward the nature of the future. While the present and future are surrounded by darkness, the past is surrounded by light. This allows the viewer to associate happiness with the past. This also allows the past to seem more like reality than the present in the film. Where there is mystery in the underground, there is light and hope in the past.
It is possible that these differences in lighting are attempting to make a statement about life in general. Do we fixate on memories because we are scared of the uncertain future? Is life lived in the present or in memory? If reality is a construct of our own psyche then perhaps we are all living in a dream. It is an assumption of the film that reality is subjective, that the mind can travel through time while the body remains in the present. The persistence of memory in the ability to time travel suggests that time exists within our own minds. The darkness of the future furthers this idea by providing a future that is not defined. The setting of the future remains unknown despite the man being there. The darkness of the future and present suggest that reality lies in our memories.
The light surrounding the past can also be seen to suggest that our memories are an escape from the present. The darkness of the present represents the constraint of time. Life is constantly moving toward death and so there is no escape from time. Memories provide a link to the past through which one can relive their greatest moments as they age. In this way, the present is almost like a prison: dark and claustrophobic with no way out but through memory. The light of the past represents freedom from the darkness of the present.
Along with light, sound also plays a part in influencing the viewers emotions. In the scenes with the experimenters, a faint whispering can be heard. We can not understand what is being said, but we can hear that they sound concerned. The mystery of the experimenters is compounded by these incomprehensible whispers. The sounds create confusion and distrust over the imagery of the blindfolded man. The muffled voices in the diegesis also say something about the way Marker feels about memory. The sounds of the present are unimportant, otherwise they would be heard. This is further demonstrated by the use of a narrator to tell the story of the pictures. By excluding sound from the story Marker is revealing how much he feels memory is influenced by images. These fragmented images are what make up memory, and we piece them together through our own narrative. The film's narration then takes the place of the inner voice, keeping us invested in the images, and allowing us to use the images to create our own memories of the film's action.
The imagery of the opening sequence is also important in how one interprets the film. The film opens with the memory of the man. The camera is zoomed in on the airport jetty, and pulls back to a wide shot of the airport. The negative space in the composition is filled with light landscapes that seem to go on for miles; the airport doesn't seem to be anywhere specific. It is in this open space that one finds freedom in the memory of the opening sequence. There is also an emptiness to the scenes that fills the viewer with an uneasiness. While there is freedom in the memory there is also little hope. The film then fades to black before a Paris destroyed by a nuclear bomb appears on the screen. The images of Paris in ruins confirm the hopelessness of the opening by showing the viewer a bleak landscape with zero life. Only death and destruction remain in a once large and lively city. These landscapes of destruction provide the viewer with a background to the world of the film, preparing us for the world of darkness that is the present. It is through this emotional lens that we view the story.
By beginning the film with the memory we are also made aware of the importance of this memory in the context of the destruction. The hopeless escape from reality provided by the past is represented by the airport in the middle of nowhere. The airport is a hub of travel and opportunity, it represents the ability to travel from where you currently are. If the airport is in the middle of nowhere, then the airport is what allows you to go somewhere. In the film, the man is trapped underground, and so his memory becomes his escape.
The film returns to the airport at the end, where the traveler learns that he is the man that died on the jetty in his memory. In the end, much like in life, there is no escape from death. The images of the man running towards the woman signify the futility of living in the past. He is fighting his way toward the freedom of his memories yet death is closing down on him. Ending the film in such a way helps to assure that one remembers this film as a story of struggle; the struggle of the time traveler to find freedom in his closed off world. The experiments become an opportunity for the man, allowing him to explore the memories he is already fixated on.
After digesting the film for a while, a separate narrative began to emerge within my own head. 'La Jetee' is a film about a dystopian future in which the world has been destroyed by war and forced underground; but in remembering the film the questions about life and memory began to open up the door to another possibility. Perhaps 'La Jetee' is in fact an elaborate metaphor. Is the film about a man traveling through time, or could it be about a man in an institution, struggling to deal with reality after the death of his wife? The absence of action in the film suggests a break from reality within the narrative. The film is made up of a fragmented reality that is composed in a similar way to memories. From this we can hypothesize that the entirety of the film is itself a memory. If this is the case, then we can no longer trust the narrative as reality, and instead look at it as a metaphor.
Consider the film as a metaphor for a man trying to move on with his life after a traumatic event like the death of his wife. The memory of the airport jetty is what keeps the man grounded in reality as he travels through time. He is given injections to travel through time, back to this moment, and reconstructs reality through this memory. In reconstructing these memories, it is possible that he is attempting to reconstruct his own life, confronting his experience and grounding himself back in reality. Perhaps the man is not traveling through time at all but dreaming of his happier past.
The significance of the man's memory to time travel could suggest that he is not traveling through time at all; rather it could suggest that the time travel really refers to the act of recollection. The memory becomes not the anchor to the present, but rather a pathway. It is the beginning of coming to terms with the traumatic event and rejoining the present. Through this memory the man is grounding himself back into reality by reclaiming the past so he can move into the future.
The lack of violence and action in the shots of Paris after the war would then suggest that the images come from the mind of the man. The imagery of the bombed out city represents the ruins that have become the man's life. There is no violence because he has been emotionally ruined, the world to him has been shattered. The world is empty because in this world, he is the only inhabitant. The buildings that make up his world are in ruins and life is now full of darkness and mystery.
The present is dark and mysterious because the man is unable to deal with the reality of the present. The darkness of the present represents the darkness in the man's life; it surrounds him and keeps him cut off from the rest of the world. The cover's for his eyes can then be seen as a metaphor as well, symbolizing the man's inability to see the present. The shadows surrounding the experimenters could also suggest that they are not part of reality, but rather a construction of the man. The images of his struggles in the present as he travels through time then would become representations of his emotions as he remembers the past rather than a result of the injections.
The darkness in the future suggests then that the man was not in fact ready face reality. The people of the future offer him to stay there and live out his life, but he is now so attached to the past that he instead returns to his memory of the airport jetty, in search of the woman he loves. In this way life becomes a paradox. The man wants to continue on in the reality that is happy to him, but as we know there is no future in that reality. Ultimately the man chooses the world that does not actually exist and so, he dies inside of his own memory, struggling to reach the woman he loves. The sequence of the man running down the jetty is quite violent in this regard. We can see the man's face as he races toward the unattainable goal. The action frozen in several still frames with the resistance of the wind pushing him back as he moves forward. He gets closer and closer until the guard catches up to him, ending it all. Is the man really dead or simply lost in his own mind after failing to rejoin reality?
In the same way that the presence of the man in both past and present hints that the man might be dreaming, the faint whispers can be seen as allusions to the present reality which is closed off to the main character. Perhaps it is not the injections sending him back but rather a voice guiding him to those moments. This type of analysis is only possible because the film is so effective at ingraining its images into the memory of the viewer. The persistence of the images force one to contemplate the deeper meaning of the film allowing for a host of interpretations to come about. Another possibility is that the film itself is an elaborate flashback.
The way the film begins and ends in the same place is the first clue to this possibility. The airport is shown to be isolated from the rest of the world, surrounded by deep landscapes and open space. This could signify that there is nowhere to go from this airport, and that in fact from the very start of the film we will never actually leave the jetty. Much of this analysis has dealt with the editing of the film and how that creates sequences that seem like memories to the viewer. Expanding on that idea leads to the possibility that the film is a view into the subjective reality of the time traveler. Everything we see in the film would then be straight from the mind of this man, and the narration becomes the voice of the man's sub-conscious as he recounts the events leading up to his death.
This sort of analysis is only possible because of memory. The imagery of 'La Jetee' allows the viewer to make connections to their own life and emotions. As one recalls 'La Jetee', they are faced with many questions about the relationship between memory and reality. Through a combination of imagery, editing, sound, lighting and composition, Marker has created a film that cements itself in the minds of the viewer. Through the fragmented imagery of reality presented in the film, the viewer creates their own action inspired by the imagery and narration. In remembering 'La Jetee', the images of the film remain vivid and powerful. The techniques employed by Marker allow the film to be seen as we would recall our own life.
Whether the film is an elaborate metaphor, a flashback, or in fact a science fiction tale of time-travel; one thing remains clear: 'La Jetee' can be whatever the viewer wants. This idea is central to the narrative of the film. The idea of a subjective reality permeates the film and forces us to distrust what we see. The persistent images combined with our own experience create an entirely new world of meaning surrounding the film. This theme seems to be integral to Marker's idea of a subjective reality; if this can be true for a film, then who is to say that it is not true of real life?
Memory is a powerful tool in making sense of the world around us. It is through recollection that we gain perspective on the events that make up our lives. Memories allow us to make connections between different events; allowing for a subjective experience of reality. Who is to say what the objective reality is made up of? Do we live life in the moment or are we constantly recollecting the past? If the latter is the case, then reality is truly in the eye of the beholder. Through this subjectivity one can begin to understand how different people interpret the same events in multiple ways. Who is to say which is correct? Life is a game of mystery for all of us; everybody seems to be striving for the ultimate meaning; 'La Jetee' is a film that questions the very essence of life and forces the viewer to contemplate the possibility of a subjective reality.
Works Cited
Bensmaia, Reda. “From the Photogram to the Pictogram.” Camera Obscura.
Jacob, G. Chris “Marker and the Mutants.” Sight and Sound. 35:4. Autumn 1966
