1) Prepare a one-paragraph statement that answers this question:
How does La Jetée convey a message about the impact of technology on
humanity?
When you’ve
completed the paragraph:
2) Summarize its point in a one-sentence thesis
answering the question.
3) Post the paragraph, followed by the thesis, to
the blog, on or by Jan 19
4) Read other people’s theses and be prepared to discuss
them in class on Jan 26.
It will help to
consider:
What is the story
really about?
How does the plot
present the story?
What role do
science and technology play in the plot?
What makes this
film unusual?
What do these
unusual formal and stylistic features contribute?
Please do not
consult any resources--criticism, reviews, fan pages, etc.--available online or
in print before you write. Rely on your own analysis and ideas.
13 comments:
Science and technology exist in a dream world. For one, science and technology bring about objects and processes that seem unreal or out of dreams. For another, scientists and individuals that work in tech, live in a dream where they have control over nature. The film La Jetée shows that science and technology can be only be our destructor. The viewers are left to assume that the technology of World War III destroys the world of the present timeline. However, technology is also used to send a prisoner to the past and future to find a solution for the present. The prisoner is chosen because of images of a woman in his memory and dreams that could aid in sending him back in the past. In the end the prisoner is able to return to woman in the past that had persisted in his memories, only to be killed. There could be a time paradox of the prisoner seeing himself die as child or perhaps the paradox is merely the cyclical nature of technology, where advancements are always followed by subsequent destruction. The film La Jetée also exists in a paradox. Where the story telling tries to convince the viewer that technology is sending the prisoner back in time, there are more inconsistencies that support that the prisoner is in a dream. One example of inconsistencies of the story is as follows, “Now she is asleep in the sun….only to be sent back to her, she is dead. She wakes up.” The film is shown with still images in succession. The only moment of real footage is during a sequence with the woman in bed. The abrupt footage leaves the viewer feeling like they are in a dream and only supports the story’s time travel existing in a dream.
Humanity exists in a dream where technology is our savior where in its place we should have nature.
In the short ‘film’ La Jetée, the unnamed man and lab rat, who is the main character, is sent through time as an experiment in science and technology after World War III. The film shows this technology in a negative light, as if the obsession with the possibilities technology presents (rather than the obsession with technology itself) can ever only lead to one ending: violence and war. This is made very clear with the style of the work; When the man is in the lab, it is dark and dismal, and his face is often devoid of emotion. A prominent image from the lab scenes is the scientist, leaning over and looking at the camera, with no mercy or compassion in his eyes. Sound is also very notable- when he is there, the sounds of heartbeats and whispers in German haunt him, and his terror is visible. The darkness of these times is even farther emphasized when the man travels to the past and meets with the woman, his lover. When he is there, he is more alive, and there is music playing, and brighter images, and, most importantly, her. The images of her are of both of them, but his sentiment infects the image, making it impossible to not feel the same love for her that he feels. This beautiful woman, who is full of life and joy, who has no idea she will meet her demise in the coming war, and who has not yet been harmed by technological obsessions of others. The focus, and thoughts, of the man are important to look at- although time travel excites him, the love he has and the image of the jetty art Orly, which has been his haunting, idyllic image since he was a child, is far more precious to him. Though the man’s focus on that singular moment leads to his death, the problematic qualities of technology seems far more detrimental. This story is a tragedy, a romance, a childhood memoir, science fiction, and, perhaps most importantly, a warning. A warning to those who get obsessive, to the point of harming others.
Through the tragic story of one man, La Jetée warns humanity of letting technology become its obsession, without remembering the consequences, and the times of the past.
The film La Jetée shows an imagined future that is shaped by humanity's use of technology. It takes place in Paris in a world wrecked and uninhabitable from a third World War, so radioactive that everyone has retreated underground. They lived in an “empire of rats.” They had technology so great, that they could even spy on people's dream, there was no more privacy. They could even take people to experiment with, not caring about about their subjects' safety and with no fear of retribution, such as they did with the main character. While they have a legitimate reason to experiment with time travel, to receive energy sources and other necessities for their people, they do so in a horrible way. They performed experiments on him and many before him to prepare them for time travel, which killed and crazed many. Eventually when they received what they wanted, they murder the main character.
Technology is portrayed as dangerous, used to mostly harm and kill other people.
La Jetée describes the importance of the inability to escape fate. The humans of the past, or present depending on how you look at it, destroyed the world and needed help from the future. For the humans to survive they needed aid from the future, thus it was fate’s choice to allow this to happen. The man in this story is attempting to avoid his destiny and chose to go back to the past and live a simple life with the woman of his dreams after saving the world. The world intervenes and he was killed at the exact moment of his childhood memory where it all started. He remembered seeing a man dying, not knowing that it was his future self. No matter how far technology brings us, people can never be all powerful. The real danger of technology is tricking humans into thinking that we are and the consequences that follow.
No matter how far people come with technology, humans can never be all powerful and believing that we can escape fate will always be our downfall.
The short film, La Jetee, conveys a message about the impact of technology on humanity. The stories tells us what the future is, and that there’s only a select number of actions humans can take to even try to restore things back to normal. Because of the constant use, or growth of technology, they now have to use technology to somehow fix a situation. The idea that Time Travel could be the only way to restore became too much to handle, but that rejection of an idea would not stop a Mad Scientist. Through dreams, a man was able to live a life other than reality. Technology was used to control the mind, take it to another demotion, or the dominion of time. The more advanced the technology made by humans become the more us humans are controlled by that same technology. The short film shows the obvious aspects of technology controlling humans.
Humans make technology assuming we would have the ability to control it, to only understand that we would be controlled by the technology itself.
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JAESOOK NOH:
The film shows the impact of technology on humanity. In the film, the unnamed man is lying with covered eye in a dark room for an experiment in technology after World War III. This experiment makes him to travel past to the future. This technology came to his memory and sent him back in the past. While he was getting this experiment, this scene seems he is dreaming with brighter images. When he sent to the past in his memories, he meets a woman, his lover. Through this experiment, he just saw her death and he was killed as his memory of childhood .During this experiment; he sometimes had a look of anguish. The scientist was not reacted to the man’s agonized expression and just stared at the camera. This attitude of scientist seems to represent a cruel fact and image of science and technology. Through this experiment, he seems to be distressed from the memories of the past. He was seen as being dominated, rather than using the technology.
From this story of the film, La Jetée shows that people do not really control the technology they created; they are just controlled by the technology.
La Jeteé was based upon the desire to go back to a time and space where we were before and the research of one man's powerful mental picture from his childhood that scarred him for life. The man endured a series of experiments in an attempt to send him back in time using the one thing in reality that is, though aiding us, slowly killing us: technology. The basic morale of the story is that we spend so much time trying to return to a place in time, that we lose time, and essentially ourselves.
La Jeteé impies the notion of losing time trying to go back in time to reflect the impact of technology.
From MICHAEL HYMAN:
La Jetee masterfully conveys mans need to question his place in time, as well as his toll on humanity via his man made technology. Hence time and space is everything. It gives us a look into our history, which gives us an explanation of the present. La Jetees’ plot severs as a vehicle to explore some of these themes. This time-travel experiment as told by a narrator invites the viewer to come along on a psychological journey which evokes memories of joy and dismay. I think C Marker the creator of La Jette does a great job of inducing the viewer into a traumatic state with his unusual film style. I found his use of whispering, heartbeat, and silence SFX in conjunction with a dramatic black & white still photo montage to be a powerful device, which induces the viewer into a dreamlike state, causing them to fill in the blanks and embarking on to their own time travel. This unusual film as a result via technology ( film/youtube) contributes to the viewer’s own time travel.
Once one makes a successful time travel , that event changes the present of history which may explain the end of the movie and his death.
La jetee is a short film about 28 minutes running time, the movie has connotations of lots of the philosophies about humanity and technology. it is obscurity and paradoxical message to audience. The video running with narration and still images. Through the collection of overlapped images, director convey the profound meaning to audience. During this overlapped images looks parallel to the man’s situation over his past, present, and future. The background of this movie is the period after World War 3. The war left the world devastated. Survived people moved to underground world and they were in an exhausted condition.People in underground world send man to the past and future, they tried to find the cause of the war and the way not to be collapsed. Through this technology(time travel), the main character who is covered his eye was used as human guinea pig of this experiment. He was sent to his past and future. He was able to time travel, However, in his past and future, he recognized the only way to escape of this reality is completed with own death.
I suppose this ending is pretty ironic, but this movie criticizes sharply the influence of technology. Although it is old film, his movie reflects the relationship between technology and humanity in our life. Technology is a double edged sword, we need to be careful how it is used.
Technology is both the source of advancement of humanity and with it’s abuse, a demise. The main character of La Jetee is controlled by the victors of WWIII to find sustainability in the post apocalyptic environment of the ‘present’. The main character uses the museum of his memory, images which have accumulated over time, to descend back into the past and perform the duties set forth by the scientists. This is exemplified through the use of still photography to visually narrate the film - a technology used to capture the essence of past time. The main character successfully utilizes time travel when advancing to the future, for it confirms the continuation of humanity and a win for technology. His ultimate demise comes the request to go back in time, to be glued to the images of his past. It is not technology that is to blame for the impact on humanity. It is the responsibility of those that use it to respond to the problems at present which are intended to better prepare for the future. That being said, human nature has proven to abuse technologies intention for the use of personal agendas that ultimately affect much more than that individual.
La Jetee shows that the misuse of technology for person agendas cause repercussions.
La Jetée has a negative take on technology on the impact of technology on humanity. The main character is a prisoner in a post-apocalyptic setting after a third world war. This is a horrific setting, which would only be made possible through technology. Without technology, the prisoner would not be in such a crucially uncomfortable situation in the first place.
They then use technology to try to save the current state of the planet, which sends the prisoner into the past and into the future. He gets what they need from the people of the future to save the current state of the planet but then he realizes he's going to be executed. The war, the post-apocalyptic state of the planet, the state of being a prisoner, and his impending doom has all been brought on by technology. He eventually escapes into the past, with help from the technology of the future, but he is still executed.
Technology turns against humanity: it will be the downfall of our existence.
In the movie la Jetee, The Machine is referring to the human brain and it 's deepest secrets to be deciphered by scientists through technology. Even though there is a tendency to believe that the nuclear bombs that are causing destruction and change of human life are cause by the technology, there is no sign in the movie that pointing out that it is related with the technology or machines. It is just a general knowledge that is believed by most of the people. However, technology that is used by the scientist who was researching human brain is German. Since the movie first came out in nineteen sixties the evil scientist is German, referring to the Second World War. We understand that from the whispering which are made in German language. He is making his researches by using human brain and supposedly try to catch time travel. However we cannot be sure if it is a real travel or part of the memories related to the traumas of the guy who became a lab rat.
Technology that is used for deciphering the human brain’s secrets is dilemmas. As Albert Einstein said: “ I could understand the particulars of atoms but never understand human being”
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