La Jetée

La Jetée is set in a world devastated by a third world war, where survivors in a ruined city search for a way out of their predicament. Their hopes rest on experiments in time travel, and one man is chosen for them because a single image from his past has stayed with him more vividly than anything else. As he moves between past and future in the hope of finding help for the present, the experience forces him to reckon with that memory and what it means.

Chris Marker wrote and directed the film, which was produced by Anatole Dauman for Argos Films with Radio-Télévision Française. Released in February 1962, it was the first of Marker's directed works in the chronological record, followed by Three Cheers for the Whale, Sans Soleil and A. K. Told almost entirely through still photographs with a voice-over delivered by Jean Négroni, it runs under half an hour and blends drama, romance and science fiction.

On IMDb it holds 8.2 out of 10 from around 40,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 7.9 from roughly a thousand. A critics' rating of 8.7 from 29 reviews places it somewhat above both audience scores. The small vote count on TMDB relative to IMDb indicates a shorter film whose reputation rests on a comparatively modest but engaged viewership.