A little while ago, Netflix surprised me by offering me a free trial to the DVD by mail service that I had subscribed to for about six years, but have been too poor for since returning to the US. When my account started back up, they sent me two movies rather quickly and I failed to check my queue. When I saw this film, in its two in a disc pack with Sans Soleil, I wasn't particularly excited. It sat in my queue for most of the time I had Netflix, just waiting until I was up to it. I was so loathe to get on with it that I sat through the other unfortunate get from my queue, The Privileged Planet.
I do not recommend that movie, by the by, because it is poorly made and even more poorly argued. First, I agree with the conclusion that God created us and that we're important to him. Agreeing with that, I find the argument totally unnecessary. There is nothing about the grand story of Scripture or the essential theology of Christianity that requires that we be the whole or even the center of God's great, cosmic plan. This is a return to pre-Copernican fear of heliocentricity. Dorothy Sayers, in her translation of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, suggests that Dante would have found the heliocentric worldview more in line with his metaphors and his worldview, because it keeps man from imagining himself as the center of things and clarifies the fact of God as center. In this same way, I think that imagining man to be special misses the key point to the Scriptures, that man is only special because God loves him, coupled with the manifest fact that just because God is speaking to you doesn't mean he isn't speaking to anyone else.
I find even more frustrating the lack of intellectual acumen used to promote vaguely Christian reasoning. While they make explicit reference to Sagan and other secularist scientists, they fail to note major arguments that shatter theirs advanced by these very thinkers. First, their entire theory is based on the idea that all the intelligent life in the universe looks like us, specifically is based in carbon, needs oxygen and water, etc. Sagan points out that its silly to think that a wide and varied universe might well have very different types of life, suited to their own environments. Second is the anthropic principle, which points out that most if not all of the arguments that suggest our environment is perfectly suited to us can be worked to support an Darwinian evolutionary perspective, because if there are infinite universes and an ever-expanding universe, eventually there would be a perfect place for beings like us to evolve and grow. Our planet/galaxy/universe wasn't designed for us, but we were designed by it. That's why we fit. I don't agree with all this reasoning, but I find it much more convincing than the arguments put forth by The Privileged Planet. Sorry to ramble, but this whole thing is very annoying.
But on Monday I decided to finally sit down and try out this film, La Jetée. I was shocked. This half-hour film, if that term is appropriate (the creator called it a photo-roman, French for photo-novel), is one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. Let me break it down.
For wit, I gave it a 9.5. I should point out that the form and length made me give it an automatic -.25 for each category, each for different reasons. I'll try to explain. My initial analysis of left me choosing a 9.75 for wit. The actors give great "performances," subtly using the handicap of single images to give us a pulled back view of two people falling in love. They do this with no dialogue and only one scene approaching full speed film. The same goes for writing. The narrator is pithy and eloquent, even occasionally funny. It would be a great film, if it had been filmed. But the handicap of the medium, the narrated, timed slide-show, keeps it from being quite as witty.
For wisdom, I again chose a 9.5. Part of the trouble here is the medium. The narrator is so neutral that the majority of it leaves us with little to no message. The incidentals of the story are of a high quality though. Here we have a complex, beautiful love story told all in montage. Two beautiful souls giving themselves to each other in a limited, painfully limited way and coming away with no bitterness or reproach, only sadness when it is over. But no trace of selfish fling love of the post-modern variety, but pure, self-sacrificing, passionate love, without possession, but not without commitment. There is the briefest suggestion of fornication, but very forgivable, under the circumstances. Overall beauty, tinged with the sadness and evil of a post-apocalyptic autocracy that uses everyone and loves no one.
For wisdom, I gave the highest, 9.75. This is in part because I had to do something to counter the -.25's, because though the medium keeps this film from perfection, it is one of the most interesting and beautiful directorial decisions I've ever seen and I wish more people would try it. But this exciting, novel method must get less than a perfect score, because it clearly avoids the trouble that would have accompanied trying to do these same scenes in full speed. This allows the post-apocalyptic scenario to be accomplished with less work and expense, which is a mixed bag. There's definitely some lack of "production value" here, to quote Super 8, but the film is truly fantastically made, from the music to the piecing together of the scenes to the amazing shot of the Arc de Triomphe bisected.
The music, the work of Trevor Duncan, fills in the movement aspect lost within the medium and does it in a way that makes quite a bit more of it than it would be without it. The brilliant use of the still photos to speed up and slow down the pace and to give the film a beautiful simplicity and clarity is one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. The creation of post-apocalyptic Paris from stock photos is also inspired. Overall, this film comes in solidly at number nineteen all-time and thus gets into my forthcoming rewatch project for the top twenty-five.
I hope everybody who takes me seriously about movies watches this film and enjoys it. It truly has taken my breath away. This is easily the shortest turn-around on a review since I've come home. Otherwise look forward to my first in the Rewatch series, the infamous The Dark Knight Rises (infamous only to me, because I chose to give it a perfect score when it first came out) coming soon. Enjoyez!
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