There are days when I almost think I understand the world.
And then there are days when I just want to play A Serious Man on repeat for all eternity.
What's your go-to filmic reminder of the fragility of knowledge behind humanity's persistent ache for fuller understanding?
(Ten bucks said TBL comes first to mind for the majority. 😉)
La Jetée is one of only a few films that feels to me like poetry.
12 Monkeys is doing something else, aesthetically. For me, it gets in its own way by trying to establish a secondary site of shock - the grungy-grittiness of the future - while still trying to treat the original's main twist as the crux of its story arc, too.
I don't think it succeeds at keeping the original story centred - or that it really wanted to. What about you? How did both work on you?
@MLClark As it happens, I saw La Jetée after I saw 12 Monkeys, so the twist of the story arc was fresh to me and thus didn't feel as disconnected from the shock of the alternate future. I liked it, but it's not my favorite Terry Gilliam film (that would be either Brazil or the Adventures of Baron Munchausen, both of which, come to think of it, are more unified in imagery).
La Jetée is very much poetry, and like a lot of poetry, I have trouble defining what makes it what it is.
@MLClark I'm kind of curious now whether you have any particular views on 12 Monkeys (the Terry Gilliam movie influenced by La Jetée, and not the TV series influenced by Terry Gilliam).