"He ran to her, and when he recognized the man who had followed him from prison, he realized that time was inseparable, he understood what had always puzzled him, thinking that the moment he saw as a child was the end of his own life. The moment..." This text comes from the end of the sci-fi avant-garde short film "the pier" directed by Chris Marker, a representative of the French New Wave left.
I like this short film very much, and it is because of this short film that I got to know the director.
The films are composed of still images, poetic narration, ambient music, and dream-like murmurs. In fact, his utensils for traveling through time are also very simple, but instead it creates a sense of absurdity. Although they are all static pictures, whether it is the warm atmosphere when meeting the woman or the strange atmosphere in the experiment, they are all very well presented. The photos also show a sense of record, which makes the occurrence of the film more realistic.
I think the death of the male protagonist also represents the death of humanity and romanticism. World War 3, for unknown reasons, ruined people's lives. People's lives have not seen the light of day, and they live in various passages underground like mice. Scientists use imaginative people to travel through time in order to bring food, medicine, energy, etc. to the present to change the status quo. Although the male protagonist is a survivor, he is indeed a prisoner without freedom and hope. In the experiment of time travel, he met women in the past and felt the warmth, comfort and hope that he had never experienced before. Even though the male protagonist could have chosen a peaceful future in the end, he went back to the morning when the war broke out in order to see the woman again. Rather risk death or become a prisoner again, but also run towards the sunshine and hope he has seen. In the end, there is no escape from the fate of mankind.
The male protagonist is the only human-like person in the film. He is rich in emotion, imaginative, and longing for hope. He is the representative of human beings. Although human beings cannot escape fate, they do not care about the outcome of this fate, and he is willing to pursue his own meaning regardless of his life. Although the romantic partner dies in the film, there is still romance in this critical film.
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