Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD EAN: 9780790747347 Format: Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC ISBN: 0790747340 Label: Warner Home Video Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Warner Home Video Region Code: 1 Release Date: January 04, 2000 Running Time: 120 minutes Studio: Warner Home Video Theatrical Release Date: 1997 Sales Rank: 29870
Amazon.com: This reissue of the second release in a series of DVD anthologies of short films, like its fellow Short titles, is loosely organized around a common theme--in this case, the terrain of the subconscious. The big fish here is Chris Marker's 1962 classic, La Jetée, the forever- haunting, post-apocalyptic story of a man's descent into a time-tripping dream state, where his origins and destiny fold together in one fleeting moment at an airport. If that scenario sounds somewhat similar to a certain Terry Gilliam feature (oh, OK, it's 12 Monkeys), you're right, and Gilliam can be heard on an alternate soundtrack here talking about the challenge and fun of being "inspired by" Marker's film. (Yet another alternate soundtrack features commentary by 12 Monkeys screenwriters David and Janet Peoples.) Not surprisingly, La Jetée turns out to be a hard act to follow, and there's not much on Short 2 that even comes close to its league. Alison De Vere's 1974 animated piece, Café Bar, about a blind date at a coffee house, is more intriguing for its historical value as a "brushsticks style" of crafting images than as a work of art. Joachim Solum and Thomas Lien's watery Depth Solitude is an effectively blunt and bizarre--but ultimately obvious--fable about a pool cleaner who lives in his deep-sea-diving suit at the bottom of a public swimming facility. The best thing going for it is an English-language narration by Max Von Sydow, who unfortunately is not involved with Carmen Elly's A Guy Walks into a Bar. This competent but wearying film, about a college-bound young man (Fred Savage) who meets up with a sexy hitchhiker (Allison Moir) and finds his world changed, does not inspire thoughts of a second viewing. On the plus side, there's an interview with independent director George Hickenlooper and an accompanying, interesting bit showing us a pre-production prototype of select scenes from Hickenlooper's The Big Brass Ring. If you've seen the latter movie in its finished state (based on an original script by Orson Welles and Oja Kodar), it is startling to watch an entirely different roster of actors (including Malcolm McDowell) in roles that Hickenlooper ultimately recast with William Hurt, Nigel Hawthorne, Miranda Richardson, and Irène Jacob. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Criterion release in June
Just to let everyone know who have been disappointed with the DVD versions, that Criterion are bringing out a hi-def version with new and improved English subtitle translations in June, 2007.
Rating: - READ HERE FOR A DIFFERENT, POSITIVE REVIEW
You have heard of the cult-classic La Jettée, and either you are dying to see it, or have seen it and are dying to have it. Now you have finally found it on this collection, but are probably having serious ... Read More
Rating: - bijouflix-for French
If you're looking for a dvd copy of la jetee in french (with english subtitles), check out bijouxflix. I just got mine in the mail, and the copy is grainy but otherwise intact.
Rating: - english???
I agree with the majority of the opinions expressed here so no need to go into detail - the English narration for La Jetee does a serious disservice to this remarkable film. I have done a fair bit of research ... Read More
Rating: - La Jetee--- devastating film, but lousy redone narration...
This DVD contains one of non-mainstream cinema's most haunting (there's that word again) classics, "La Jetee". A French short done (almost) entirely in B&W stills.
The problem is that the DVD has the 1962 ... Read More
- Criterion release in June
- READ HERE FOR A DIFFERENT, POSITIVE REVIEW 
- bijouflix-for French