One Paragraph Movie Review: La Jetee

Three hundred and fourth film: La Jetee, a short film from 1961 composed of mostly still black and white photographs with a voice-over, which 1995’s Twelve Monkeys was based on. Wow. Anyone describing this film to me would have failed to convince me of its greatness, yet here I am, like an idiot, describing it to you. I’m still marvelling at how still images can cram so much into 28 minutes, including time travel, a love story, a tragedy, and the world’s most poetic and efficient telling of a science fiction story. And I can only sound like a wanker when I say it feels like I’ve just watched my first science fiction poem, and that it’s the realest, calmest, and most beautiful science fiction poetry imaginable (apologies to Roy Batty and his rainy rooftop monologue in bike shorts, the previous owner of the title).I can’t say much or I’ll spoilt it, but it’s a thinky loop, and I LOVE those. Marvellous. Yep. Five future past visits to the museum out of five.