Earth lies in ruin after a nuclear war. The few surviving humans begin researching time travel, hoping to send someone back to the pre-war world for food, supplies and maybe a solution to their dire position. One man is haunted by a vague childhood memory that will prove fateful.
I find it tediously pretentious, but there are striking images in it, and it does get across a vague impression of Frankensteinian meddling with the brain.
This needs to be on your shelf, whether you picked up the 2007 DVD or you're eyeballing this one. Maybe you were waiting for Marker's low-tech genius to be reproduced in high-def. It was worth it the wait.
Always confounding even when it seems accessible, the mysterious and gripping plot raises unanswerable questions about time, memory and the progress of life on this planet.
A remarkable and unique experimental short that consists solely of still frames, narration, music and sound effects as it relates an apocalyptic tale of memory and time-travel.
The soundtrack's texture is similarly sparse, and the fluid montage leads the viewer into the sensation of watching moving images. Until, that is, an extraordinary epiphany when an image genuinely does move.
A fantastic experiment in narrative and visuals. Highly influential, i'm surprised this formula has not been used more often.
September 26, 2007
Tsubaki Sanjuro
Super Reviewer
Talk about an amazingly brilliant and original idea, I can't think of anything that I don't like about this truly bizarre film. It takes every expectation you have about film and storytelling and throws it out the window. Chris Marker's style really takes hold in this, where as in something like Sans Soleil it is not
quite as apparent. The photography/cinematography is beautiful and rivals some of Roman Polanski's shots in Knife In The Water. I don't think anyone who sees this can not be inspired in some way.
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