I feel that the two main themes in La Jetee are fate and love. The story line of the movie is very interesting, as is starts when the main character was a child, and witnessed a murder that happened at the airport.

The director used an interesting view to show the fate of a person. The man’s memory from the past connected with the men’s death in the future. This really makes one think about how the present connect with the future, and how they may affect each other. The director also characterized love in the movie, especially in the ways the man gave up his chance to be peaceful in the future to go back in time to stay with the girl he loves. The photos of the man and the girl are also crucial. Compared to other photo’s in the movie, the photos of these two characters were often brighter, more peaceful, clam and cheerful. The photo of the sleeping girl was especially remarkable, as those pictures had a really soft atmosphere and the girl in the photo looked gorgeous. Those pictures are what make people understand why the main character is in love with the girl, and how happy they are when they together. Those pictures of the two characters really displayed their love to each other and thus showed how love can brighten the world.  

        The entire movie was made by a series of stationary images. The director often used photos with different perspectives to show audience the background and the environment. The director also used close range photos to show characters in the story, their actions, their moods, as well as the physical and psychological changes. Although films are often referred to as “photos with movement”, in this movie, there is more use of the photos themselves. Under the director’s shoot, composition, and editing, the loss of the movement in the movie did not affect viewer’s understanding of this movie. In the other hand, the stillness of the image provided the viewer a novel, fresh, and special way to encounter the story. Without any bright color, the black and white in the images showed strong contrast, which can easily present an impressive strange world to the audience. The scientists, future humans, and prisoners’ faces were often affected by strong shades in the images. The strong light and dark contrast on the faces expressed this extraordinary hopelessly depressed feeling. Viewers can easily feel the selfishness, helplessness or indifference from the photos of these characters. The black and white contrast also added cruel, dark, and mysterious emotions to the movie. However, the director also used the black and white images to create this harmonious feeling with soft lighting, especially the picture of the female character. The images of her sleeping so clam, combined with the soft lighting made her look extremely mysterious. Also, the black and white close up photos made her beauty stand out even more. The black and white color displayed her prominent her dark hair and dark colored stunning eyes against her light skin. Audiences can easily understand her beauty through these gorgeous pictures. Furthermore, the different lighting in different black and white pictures showed strong emotional changes, and the stillness of the photos let the audience have more time to understand the emotion and atmosphere of story in the movie. All the images in the movies are taken from great and unique angles with thoughtful composition; I feel I can learn so many about photography by viewing these photos.