What do you think?
Rate this book
BFI Film Classics
La Jetée
Chris Marker's La Jetée is 28 minutes long and almost entirely made up of black-and-white still images. Since its release in 1964, this legendary French film – which Marker described as a 'photo-novel' – has haunted generations of viewers and inspired writers, artists and film-makers. Its spiralling time-travel narrative has also influenced many other films, including the Terminator series and Terry Gilliam's Hollywood 'remake' Twelve Monkeys (1995).
But as Marker rarely gave interviews, little is really known about the origins of La Jetée or the ideas behind it. In this groundbreaking study, Chris Darke draws on rare archival material, including previously unpublished correspondence and production documents, to examine the making of the film. He explores how Marker's only fiction film was influenced both by his early work as a writer and by Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), and considers how La Jetée's images can be seen to 'echo' throughout Marker's extraordinarily diverse oeuvre.
But as Marker rarely gave interviews, little is really known about the origins of La Jetée or the ideas behind it. In this groundbreaking study, Chris Darke draws on rare archival material, including previously unpublished correspondence and production documents, to examine the making of the film. He explores how Marker's only fiction film was influenced both by his early work as a writer and by Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), and considers how La Jetée's images can be seen to 'echo' throughout Marker's extraordinarily diverse oeuvre.
- GenresFilm
96 pages, Paperback
First published July 15, 2016
4 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 30, 2025
اسکله، یکی از بهترین فیلمهای کوتاه تاریخ سینما. رویکرد کریس دارک، به عنوان کسی که سالها روی مارکر تحقیق کرده، بسیار نوآورانه و ارزشمند است. مثل یک باستانشناس به دل آثار مارکر میزند و تحلیلش را بر اساس اولین کتاب مارکر «قلب پاک» و فیلم دیگری که همزمان با اسکله ساخته «ماه زیبای مه» ارائه میدهد. و البته همین هم باعث میشود کمی خستهکننده و طولانی شود.
کوتاه در لترباکسد
کوتاه در لترباکسد
May 12, 2018
As someone mildly obsessed with Chris Marker's 1963 film La Jetée, I found Chris Darke's book to be the best I have read. Darke is a really fine writer and an excellent film critic, but he's also a deeply knowledgeable Marker scholar, so that he put La Jetée into the context of Marker's other films, projects, and writings. Darke traces the origins of La Jetée in Marker's earlier works and writings, and explores the reception that the film received in the 1960s. He also provides a terrific analysis of the relationship between words (writing), photographic images (La Jetée is almost completely made up of still images), and film, helping to untangle the complex relationship between the three art forms that Marker built into this 26-minute piece.
November 19, 2021
Entries in the BFI Film Classics series give the author wide leeway in what they want to say about the given film within the limited space (about 100 pages) provided. In this entry on Chris Marker’s astonishing La Jetée, Chris Darke chooses to emphasize the short film’s links to other works in Markers’ vast oeuvre.
Thus, if you are looking for details of the shooting of La Jetée or how Marker knew the cast members and attracted them onboard, you are likely to be disappointed here. Instead, Darke details how many of the striking images in the film were anticipated not only by some of Chris Marker’s earlier films but also his 1949 novel Le Cœur Net. And I am especially grateful to Darke here for describing how Marker, a fan of Vertigo, alluded to aspects of Hitchcock’s masterpiece in La Jetée – this is something that will lend new depth to my next viewing of the short.
In spite of that situation of La Jetée within Marker’s overall output taking up the bulk of this book, Darke does briefly touch on some other matters. One is how he had recently discovered materials relating to La Jetée in a Belgian archive, including a different cut of the film where, remarkably, the opening action of the film (the man running at the airport) is animated. This lets Darke briefly touch on Marker’s editing choices and how the official cut is a superior product. Also, Darke describes the release and immediate reception of the film at festivals in 1963 and, from 1964, in theatres, and the prizes it won or the criticism it attracted.
Thus, if you are looking for details of the shooting of La Jetée or how Marker knew the cast members and attracted them onboard, you are likely to be disappointed here. Instead, Darke details how many of the striking images in the film were anticipated not only by some of Chris Marker’s earlier films but also his 1949 novel Le Cœur Net. And I am especially grateful to Darke here for describing how Marker, a fan of Vertigo, alluded to aspects of Hitchcock’s masterpiece in La Jetée – this is something that will lend new depth to my next viewing of the short.
In spite of that situation of La Jetée within Marker’s overall output taking up the bulk of this book, Darke does briefly touch on some other matters. One is how he had recently discovered materials relating to La Jetée in a Belgian archive, including a different cut of the film where, remarkably, the opening action of the film (the man running at the airport) is animated. This lets Darke briefly touch on Marker’s editing choices and how the official cut is a superior product. Also, Darke describes the release and immediate reception of the film at festivals in 1963 and, from 1964, in theatres, and the prizes it won or the criticism it attracted.
May 15, 2024
One of the best books on anything about Chris Marker. I’ve seen this movie countless times and I’ve read a lot about it, but this book was filled with new treasures. And I love that the writer spends space talking about how the protagonist is time traveling in **a hammock**
The sleight of hand with chris marker is he only wants you to see how much La Jetée owes to Vertigo because it distracts from its similarities to one of his early novels—this book turned me on to that novel and just the first paragraph blew my hat off.
Chris Marker was 41 yo when La Jetée was released. Like Bazin, he was around a decade older than both Truffaut and Godard. It's a huge deal if you were in your teens or early 20s during the German occupation versus just a school kid
The sleight of hand with chris marker is he only wants you to see how much La Jetée owes to Vertigo because it distracts from its similarities to one of his early novels—this book turned me on to that novel and just the first paragraph blew my hat off.
Chris Marker was 41 yo when La Jetée was released. Like Bazin, he was around a decade older than both Truffaut and Godard. It's a huge deal if you were in your teens or early 20s during the German occupation versus just a school kid
November 20, 2025
The writer’s technical expertise, aesthetic insights, and knowledge of Marker’s range of art make this a valuable piece.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews