GWU 47448 CAS 2010.11 Humanities
II - Children of Frankenstein - SP
2015
1) Prepare a one-paragraph statement that answers this question:
How does La Jetée convey a message about the impact of technology on humanity?
When you’ve
completed the paragraph:
2) Summarize its point in a one-sentence thesis
answering the question.
4) Read other people’s theses and be prepared to discuss
them in class on Jan 21.
It will help to
consider:
What is the story
really about?
How does the plot
present the story?
What role do
science and technology play in the plot?
What makes this
film unusual?
What do these unusual
formal and stylistic features contribute?
Please do not
consult any resources--criticism, reviews, fan pages, etc.--available online or
in print before you write. Rely on your own analysis and ideas.
In the movie La Jetee (which is made up of still images) a man goes through experiments by scientists to go back in time and to the future to find out information and save the human race. During this time travel he sees a woman who he spends time with. And in the end instead of going to the future decides to go back to his childhood to meet her again and ends up meeting his own death instead. When this man goes through the experiments, it is called limbo. Limo is a “world” where time goes on but things like memory and plans don’t exist. Your just existing without a purpose. The woman that the man follows during the experiments seems to be a cover up for what he is meant to seek for his mission. Its almost as if she is a distraction. When he sees her at the Jetty a man dies. The woman is a distraction from finding out a truth about himself. In the movie Chris Marker mentions that the woman calls the man her Ghost. The connection between ghost and limo to me means a world that is in between life and death. When the man is with her, he exists between life ( his childhood ) and death ( his uncovered truth that he later discovers when offered to live in the future). Technology impacts the present by the science of the man traveling through time to retrieve a power source to fix humanity.
ReplyDeleteChris Marker presents the impact of technology on humanity by the experiment on the human mind. In La Jetée, he displays how technology can be used to both destroy and preserve the human race by first showing the destruction of Paris as a result of radioactivity. However, the Mad Scientist harnesses this technology in an attempt to control the thoughts within the mind to enable time travel. The question has to be, whether the end justifies the means, as the humans are experimented on for the greater good. Marker hints at the fact that it isn’t technology that is the issue, but rather how one uses it. Within the film, he presents how technology can potentially affect how one thinks and acts as well as changing the past, present and future, changing an individual’s perception, and therefore making it difficult for one to know what is actually real.
ReplyDeleteThesis statement:
To what extent can technology change who we are because one cannot be sure of what is real.
When the man first encounters the scientist in charge of conducting the time based experiments, “He was prepared to meet Dr. Frankenstein, or the Mad Scientist.” This reference to Mary Shelley’s book is apt in many ways. In Shelley’s book, Dr. Frankenstein creates a new life with little to no forethought on the emotional ramifications. His actions are in the name of science (and the hysterical passions of someone who has lost loved ones), yet he is tampering with a human life, one with intelligent thoughts and complex emotions. Technology is taking a leap forward, but at the expanse of humanity. In La Jetee, the scientist is taking the same liberties with his human subjects. The goal is the preservation of the human race, but the course of action involves compromising the emotional well being of innocent individuals. The scientists methods involve time travel, although his experiments are rough, and imprecise. He is clearly working in a haphazard fashion, simply hoping for positive results. The results indeed ended up positive, in that the human race was “saved.” However, progress came at the expense of this man, this human lab rat who ultimately met his demise in a tragic twist of time and fate.
ReplyDeleteLa Jetee shows that technology, while possibly being a necessary evil, often brings with it a disregard for basic humanity.
The seeking for knowing, and travel to the past and the future, are old human desires. If we all had the chance to change the past we would. For most of us, the unknown aspect of the future is exciting for many people, and scare for other. The film explicitly shows human experiments behind doors. Not only experiments, but the effect the devices scientists use on humans. The unusual and compelling aspect of this film is the photographic aspect. By using photo images to create a narrative, the artist no only created a specific narrative within each image, but he highlighted the narrative of each image by slowing down their transition, and on top of that, he heavily emphasized time. I clearly see time on each frame of this film, which is definitely unusual for me with other films. This and other formal and stylistic features of the film like the music and voice narrative, gives a weight to the drama. The idea of the “simple” is incredible displayed in this film, by composing this piece with a very basic technology available at that time. The impact of technology is subtle in one had, and can cause heavy damage in the other.
ReplyDeleteThe story is about a boy who witnesses his own death while his adult-self is time traveling. The use of technology has lead to his death. The narrative of the story is saying that technology will be what kills us, however it can also save us depending on how it is used. The role of science and technology in the movie is used to show the viewers what potentiality they have for humanity. The film is a series of still photographs in comparison to what films usually are, moving photographs which makes it unusual. I find it interesting that the movie is made up of still photographs even though the technology to make it moving exists, as if to shun the developments of technology and only using it to an extent. I feel that it's as if the movie production itself is also a message saying that technology should be restrained, that we only need to use it so much, not to a point where it becomes unnecessary. Such as the death of the time traveler.
ReplyDeleteLa Jetée is a story about time travel, the advancement of technology and it's seemingly negative impact on humanity from an apocalyptic standpoint.
ReplyDeleteThe stylistic approach in the film by using a non linear time frame, ambient sounds, and time lapse progression through the use of still photographs, I found were extremely effective in the telling or the story.
La Jetée, conveys a strong message about the demise and loss of humanity, at the hands of technology.
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ReplyDeleteThe film presents technology as both a savior or curse to humanity. It's usage can be spent to either progress humanity forward or used to detriment resulting in human suffering. The outcome of either progress or suffering is dependent on it's utilization either from a collective or an individual. The protagonist of the film is a prisoner in a dystopian future who eventually succeeds in his charge to save mankind. Yet through his own choice he inadvertently causes his premature death. The outcome of using technology is decided by one of either a scrupulous or rash action.
ReplyDeleteLa Jetée tells the story of a man, Chris Parker, who is a prisoner being experimented on by scientists. The scientists are trying to find someone who can withstand the pressure of time travel, and finally come upon Chris Parker and send him to the past and future to help rescue the current present, as it’s currently in the era of the post-apocalyptic World War III time period. Through this, technology has an impact on humanity because of its power to alter the fate of chance and circumstance. Technology can enable people to do things that would seem near impossible by human means alone. In the second time travel experiment, Parker was sent into the future, and he could see that the future, in comparison to the past, was “better protected” through more advanced technologies. In the future, he was given a power unit able to restart and rejuvenate human conditions back in his own time period. Technology has an impact that can help people navigate through life easier, whether it being through accessibility, security, and connection, humanity can benefit from its enhancement to life.
ReplyDeleteThesis
Technology has the impact to enhance humanity through its accessibility, security, and connection.
This comment was sent by PAUL MARTIN:
ReplyDeleteThe short film, La Jetee acts as a warning about the dangerous effects that technology can have on humanity. The man is removed from his previous life and subjected to various experiments by a group of scientists. These experiments lead to orchestrated events and travel through time that messes with the man’s past and future. Eventually his child self whitenesses his own death which creates a cycle of torture in his life. This long and twisted string of events are used to show how technology can be used against humanity and be the downfall of society. The scientists create an alternate world for the man that eventually gets him killed; this being a metaphor for technology being the downfall of humanity.
Thesis: La Jetee contains the message that humanity’s advancement in technology will inevitably bring about its own downfall.
La Jetee is a short film about a man who is the subject of time travel experiments. He travels back and forth through time to try to find a way for the human race to survive. In the film, technology has little impact on humanity, because it cannot alter destiny. While the man travels into the past and interacts with the woman, he doesn't alter anything in his present time, which means that he was meant to time travel all along. When he finally reaches the people of the future, who quite frequently travel through time, but don't go back to help the people of the past for some reason, they tell him how to save the human race. The man must travel to the future instead of someone traveling to the past to save the human race, because it is part of his destiny. Technology helps him to fulfill this destiny but it cannot help him alter it.
ReplyDelete