You can’t really call it a film because it’s nothing more than a succession of still images with a voice over. The
pictures are from our time (more or less), showing all the
usual technical and mechanical trappings of industrial civilization…crowded cities, airports, machines, etc.,
but the time of the narration is supposed to be after
some worldwide catatrophe (probably nuclear) that has ended the world as we know it. The pictures we see are memories of the narrator’s, relevant in some manner to what he is saying.
Does anyone remember this…and know what eventually happens? I only saw part of it.
Don’t worry about spoiling it for me. I don’t expect to
come across it again, and even if I did, I’d rather just hear how it all turns out.
I know the film you are talking about! I was watching a movie that said it was “inspired” by this film. I think it was 12 Monkeys. Anyway, they mention it in the “making of” documentary on the DVD.
I’ll have to see if I have it (I may have rented it. If so, I can’t help you.), and if I do, I can look up the name of the French film.
Yup, it’s La Jetée (The Airport), which was the inspiration for 12 Monkeys.
You can see it on one of the Short series of DVDs; it’s the one with the picture of Nicole Kidman on the cover, with the making of Portrait of a Lady featured on the disc.
I think that was La Jetéee. It’s pretty old - 1920s or 30s.
(I mean, I think La Jetée is the film that Johnny L.A. is talking about - I don’t know if it’s really the film that you are looking for, javaman.)
It turns out it is La Jetee after all. I looked it up at http://www.allmovie.com and confirmed it. And, incidentally,
about the one image I can remember is of a boy standing in
an airport concourse.
> Yup, it’s La Jetée (The Airport), which was the
> inspiration for 12 Monkeys.
Not exactly. “Jetée” means jetty or pier in French. It also means the area on top of an airport building from which one can watch planes take off, and that’s the reference in La Jetée. These used to be common in airports, but I don’t think they exist anymore.
missbunny writes:
> I think that was La Jetéee. It’s pretty old - 1920s or
> 30s.
No, it’s 1962.
It’s available on videotape. Try any large videotape catalog or website. I think it’s brilliant incidentally.
The rush and crowding of modern air travel do seem to have eliminated that relic of a more gracious time. It seems to be the case that people used to go out to the airport just for the hell of it; there was usually a good restaurant or
cafe/bar on the observation deck where you could have drinks or food and watch the activity on the tarmac. Actually you
still do find that sort of thing once in awhile: once, while waiting for our flight at Santa Barbara Airport, we passed a very enjoyable 45 minutes sipping Bloody Marys in their terrace bar which does in fact overlook the tarmac and runway.
After I posted my guess at the year, I realized how dumb that was - all those technological advancements weren’t invented yet in the 20s - duh! I think I was thinking of the book that Eyes Wide Shut was based on - Traum-something (Dream-something in German).
These places are easy to find! Go to your local General Aviation (GA) airport. **Santa Monica Airport]/b] has an outdoor observation area in their administration building on the south side of the airport. There is also a nice restaurant called Typhoon. Also on the south side of the airport is The Spitfire Grill. (The writer of the film of the same name has or had an office above the café and when he needed a name, well, there it was.) On the north side of the airport is DC-3, a nice restaurant frequented by celebs (lunch Monday - Friday, dinner Tuesday - Saturday).
At Van Nuys Airport there is the 94th Aero Squadron restaurant with a nice view of the runway. There’s a diner at the Chino Airport, but I haven’t been there in a long time. Fox Airport in Lancaster has Foxy’s Landing.
While jets are okay to watch, I think it’s more fun to go to a small airport to watch little airplanes. Sometimes you’ll see rare and antique aircraft. Nothing like feeling the rumble of a departing F4-U Corsair or seeing the sun glint off of a highly-polished P-51 Mustang! Small airports are more accessable than your typical jetport. You can actually talk to people. Take a picnic lunch and sit on the lawn. Take your kids. My dad took me to airports when I was little, and now I’m a pilot!
Sorry about that backwards bracket. Here it is again.
These places are easy to find! Go to your local General Aviation (GA) airport. Santa Monica Airport has an outdoor observation area in their administration building on the south side of the airport. There is also a nice restaurant called Typhoon. Also on the south side of the airport is The Spitfire Grill. (The writer of the film of the same name has or had an office above the café and when he needed a name, well, there it was.) On the north side of the airport is DC-3, a nice restaurant frequented by celebs (lunch Monday - Friday, dinner Tuesday - Saturday).
At Van Nuys Airport there is the 94th Aero Squadron restaurant with a nice view of the runway. There’s a diner at the Chino Airport, but I haven’t been there in a long time. Fox Airport in Lancaster has Foxy’s Landing.
While jets are okay to watch, I think it’s more fun to go to a small airport to watch little airplanes. Sometimes you’ll see rare and antique aircraft. Nothing like feeling the rumble of a departing F4-U Corsair or seeing the sun glint off of a highly-polished P-51 Mustang! Small airports are more accessable than your typical jetport. You can actually talk to people. Take a picnic lunch and sit on the lawn. Take your kids. My dad took me to airports when I was little, and now I’m a pilot!
There’s a very nice Third-World-y observation deck at the airport in Nadi (Fiji), FWIW.
And re the film, La Jetee, it’s certainly an acknowledged classic. If you get the chance to see the whole thing in its entirety, I highly, highly recommend it. I saw it years ago as part of a “shorts” program (long before 12 Monkeys brought it back to fame); there were lots of entries, and that and Un Chien Andalou were the only ones that really stuck with me. Even now, as I recall images from La Jetee, I’m getting little prickly chills.
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