La Jetee is apparently the inspiration behind Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys. It tells a short time travel story using almost entirely still back and white images and a voice-over to narrate the tale of a grim post-apocalyptic future in which a man is selected for experimentation to turn him into an unwilling Sam Beckett. The hope being that he will be able to go back and save the future from itself. Though this might sound a bit pretentious, it's only 25 minutes long and it absolutely works as a story and film. No matter how pretentious or dull it might sound, I think everyone can sit through 25 minutes and decide for themselves. I would be surprised to discover an open-minded person who wasn't at least able to admit La Jetee is worth watching. I thought it was great.
So on to Sans Soleil - a very different prospect. Since it follows on from La Jetee on the DVD I was kind of expecting more of the same, I could hardly have been further from the truth. I've not yet had a chance to look online to find out why the films are presented as a double bill, but it's not obvious. I was initially blind-sided by Sans Soleil's apparent new age bullshit. As a viewer, you are treated to footage and images of life, humanity, nature, the world, war, the east, the west, Africa, all accompanied by a voice over providing musings upon life, love, people etc. Heavy stuff. After 20 minutes I paused the DVD and had to go for a break. People occasionally accuse me of being pretentious about films, but this was too much for me even.
But there's a but coming up. The first thing I did when I went back to my DVD was to switch the language from French to English - no point watching a documentary in a foreign language just for the hell of it. From that point on things seemed to get better. Maybe it felt less pretentious and worthy in English. Anyway, I sat through the remaining 70 minutes with much more ease as I settled into the idea that I should open my mind up and allow the footage and voice-over to challenge certain axiomatic truths that the world has taught me. I am aware of how pretentious this sounds - but this is what happened, and I found it overall an enjoyable experience.
I think that perhaps a film like this carried more weight in the early 1980s when it was made, when travel for the far east was less possible for ordinary working class people in the western world. Perhaps 30 years ago it was easier to sell that concept; but I've been to Japan, and I got smashed singing YMCA in a karaoke bar. I've been to China too; and even though I did watch sunrise from the top of a holy mountain, I also saw insane inequality and experienced suffocating smog created by cities growing far faster than the environment can cope with. In a lot of ways they aren't that different to here.
None-the-less though, La Jetee is an excellent short science fiction film, and if you're able to put aside anti-pretence prejudices for a couple of hours then Sans Soleil might surprise you. Maybe. Just maybe.
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