Separated in their production by two decades, Chris Marker’s La Jetée and Sans Soleil couldn’t be more different in look and feel. One is a black and white science fiction creation done in a most unusual style while the other is a color tour through four continents capturing banalities and minutiae which caught the eye of the filmmaker. There is no question that La Jetée is the better film, a masterpiece of concentrated imagery and imagination, but those looking for something off the beaten path in a completely different direction may find San Soleil also to their liking.
La Jetée/Sans Soleil (Blu-ray)
Directed by Chris Marker
Studio: Criterion
Year: 1963/1983
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Running Time: 27/103 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: PCM 1.0 English/French
Subtitles: English, SDH
Region: A
MSRP: $ 39.99
Release Date: February 7, 2012
Review Date: February 7, 2012
The Films
La Jetée – 5/5
Terry Gilliam’s entertainingly provocative sci-fi film Twelve Monkeys was inspired by Chris Marker’s unusual and haunting 1962 movie La Jetée. Watching the earlier film, one can easily see that Gilliam took the entire basic story of the very brief 1962 film and expanded on it to make his sci-fi extravaganza. The expanded screenplay of Twelve Monkeys has some definite problems, but La Jetée is just about perfection itself, all twenty-seven minutes of it.
Done in the style of a photo montage with a languid voiceover narration, La Jetée tells the story of a future civilization living underground after a nuclear annihilation makes the surface of the Earth radioactive. In trying to find answers for their survival, scientists send condemned criminals back and forth in time experimentally to see what they can learn. The film focuses on one’s man’s journey to the past and future and its ultimate resolution.
Director Chris Marker uses a series of arresting photographic stills to tell his story, and while one is aware constantly that they are, in fact, still photos, they’re arranged in such a way as to suggest motion (there’s one astonishing moment when we have real motion picture footage rather than stills, and it’s unforgettably, brilliantly unsettling). Assisted by simple but evocative sound effects and some wonderful choral music, this is a half hour film that one will find hard to forget, and it’s heartbreaking whether one has previously seen Twelve Monkeys or not.
Sans Soleil – 3.5/5
Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil is a kind of memory book fusing images from his own camera, film clips from other filmmakers, sounds, thoughts, and feelings into a dissociated whole. In some ways similar in look and tone to Fellini’s Roma, Sans Soleil is more ambitious, fusing images and impressions of four different locales: Africa, San Francisco (in an homage to Hitchcock’s masterwork Vertigo), Iceland, and, most importantly for the director, Tokyo, which he examines with obvious curiosity, love, and awe.
It goes without saying that Marker has a painter’s eye with his imagery, and there are shots of human faces (lots of interest in those throughout the movie), animals, statues, subways, religious rituals, video games, and so much more that the brain simply can’t assimilate it all in one viewing, particularly since the director’s free association thoughts and verbal impressions are constantly running while the images fly by and a hypnotic musical score from multiple sources enriches the experience. This is the true art of the piece with a continuously rich melding of image, music, and thought that never lets up.
For this kind of cinematic Crayola box, however, there can be too much of a good thing, and the film might have benefited from being fifteen minutes shorter. However, there aren’t many images that the film could stand to lose, especially one of the most beautiful yet horrifying sights ever seen in a movie: the slow motion slaughter of a majestic giraffe and the aftermath of its death. It’s truly a sense-numbing sequence, another of those cases where one doesn’t want to look at something, but one can’t look away.
Video Quality
La Jetée – 4.5/5
The film’s original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 has been captured in a beautifully sharp 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. There’s not a blemish in sight as the gorgeous grayscale runs the gamut from very good black levels to bloom-free whites. Superb detail is in every frame of this sharp, gorgeous transfer. White subtitles are very easy to read for those who choose the foreign language soundtrack with subtitles. The film has been divided into 10 chapters.
Sans Soleil – 3.5/5
The film’s original 1.66:1 aspect ratio has been faithfully reproduced with this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Because the film is made up of a conglomeration of sources, video quality is all over the map. There is slight to heavy grain that varies from scene to scene. The film displays only average sharpness and has color that is usually accurate but occasionally blooms, especially the reds. There are intermittent specks of dirt on the new sequences, and there are some scratches on some of the older footage. It probably looks as good as it can look, but this is not an exemplary high definition video presentation. Subtitles are easily read for those who choose the foreign language track with subtitles. The film has been divided into 24 chapters.
Audio Quality
La Jetée – 4/5
The viewer can choose either the original French soundtrack (with or without subtitles) or an English sooundtrack. According to the director’s suggestions, I chose the English soundtrack this time out since he feels the movie is more effective if one watches it with his native language track. There is very slight hiss through some of the presentation, and its volume occasionally rises during the course of the film, but it’s almost never intrusive to the viewing experience. The narration occasionally sounds more trebly than the rest of the voices on the soundtrack giving the track a slightly unbalanced feel. However, the uncompressed PCM 1.0 (1.1 Mbps) track does offer a dynamic resonance in the music to go along with the very unusual video presentation.
Sans Soleil – 4/5
Again, the viewer may decide on either a French (with or without subtitles) or an English language narrative track, both in PCM 1.0 (1.1 Mbps). The English soundtrack of this film (again, according to the director’s suggestions) is a little more dynamic than the one for La Jetée. There is little to no hiss, and even the old film clips sound fine though the almost constant narration may indeed hide any artifacts that are present with them.
Special Features
4/5
Filmmaker-writer Jean-Pierre Gorin offers his impressions on each of the films in separate interviews. For La Jetée, there is a series of nine interview sequences totaling 23 ¾ minutes in length where he discusses (sometimes obtusely) Marker’s themes and methodology. His discussion of Sans Soleil is a 17-minute interview about the film’s content. All of these segments are presented in 1080i and feature generous clips from the films in question.
Film critic Chris Drake has prepared a 9½-minute overview of Chris Marker’s work in a film essay entitled Chris on Chris and is in 1080i.
Chris Marker has had a lifelong fascination with Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Vertigo, and a 9-minute featurette in French with English subtitles illustrates the way themes from Vertigo have been woven into the fabric of both of the films in this set. The featurette is presented in 1080i.
In David Bowie’s music video “Jump They Say,” he assumes in one sequence the role of the time traveler from La Jetée. A very brief 1½-minute segment shows us the parallels between the two pieces of video in 1080i.
Junkopia is a 6-minute observational film about the Emeryville Mudflats produced by Chris Marker, Frank Simone, and John Chapman. It’s in 1080p.
Criterion also has provided an invaluable 45-page booklet in this set filled with stills from the films, a comparative essay on the two movies by film scholar Catherine Lupton, a remembrance by artists Catherine and Andrew Brighton, and, most importantly, essays by and an interview with the reclusive, enigmatic filmmaker himself, Chris Marker. The interview especially is not to be missed.
The Criterion Blu-rays include a maneuvering tool called “Timeline” which can be pulled up from the menu or by pushing the red button on the remote. It shows you your progress on the disc and the title of the chapter you’re now in. Additionally, two other buttons on the remote can place or remove bookmarks if you decide to stop viewing before reaching the end of the film or want to mark specific places for later reference.
In Conclusion
4/5 (not an average)
Both La Jetée and Sans Soleil make for out-of-the-ordinary viewing experiences. Dedicated students of film as art might want to seriously consider this excellent package deal with the improved picture and sound which Blu-ray affords.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
