Rating: 
Summary: La Jetee--- devastating film, but lousy redone narration...
Review: This DVD contains one of non-mainstream cinema's most haunting (there's that word again) classics, "La Jetee". A French short done (almost) entirely in B&W stills.
The problem is that the DVD has the 1962 narration, originally done in French with English subtitles, changed to ENGLISH narration.
This is NOT snobbery, but this really hurts the mood of the picture. It's not simply that they dared translate it, but (as one poster points out below) the English narration, aside from changing some of the meaning of the phrasing, is just not as well done as the French. The original French narration was as stark and ominous as the film itself, and the new English narration lacks this, altering the effect of the film, taking it not simply out of France but out of the era in which it was filmed.
Mistake!!! Allegedly, Chris Marker gave his thumbs up on the new narration. If true, that doesn't mean that much to me (Peter Weir cut 7 minutes out of his 1975 film "Picnic at Hanging Rock" years after the fact and, in so doing, ruined it!) Besides. Marker probably thought the English narration would make the film more accessible to American audiences.....
Well (and this WILL sound snobbish), film fans who are going to appreciate "La Jetee" are not the same folks, frankly, who will demand such changes. To do so, panders to an audience that "La Jetee" is never going to have anyway.
Find a fuzzy cassette copy with the original French narration: otherwise, you haven't really seen the film.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice reissue, bit of a botched job...
Review: Warner's, in reissuing this excellent disc, has added some audio commentary, but deleted some material. I imagine most people will buy this to see La Jetee, but they will miss the excellent documentary "The making of Portrait of a Lady," which was included on side 2 of the old version.Oh well. Warner's has also redone the menus and removed some fairly humorous interstitials. Oh well again. Warner's are not known for their aesthetics (see the Eyes Wide Shut censored disc, for example) as much for their attention to the bottom line.
Rating: 
Summary: re-english version of la jetee
Review: When i ordered this DVD, i thought it would be in english and in french. I was not disappointed because i am French (in fact I watch all movies in their original version), but i had the feeling that the sound of the narration was not good. I'll tell you when i'll get the French version on the 18th of February!(French release)
Nevertheless, i think it is a really good thing that english native speakers can discover this english version. And even if we may prefer the French version, the English one is also an original version, prefered by the director himself, Chris Marker!
Concerning the DVD, do not forget that there is not only "la jetee". It contains other shorts which are very creative and interesting! That is why i put a good mark.
Rating:
Summary: There are some other very good shorts on this disc..........
Review: Which I will get to in a second. First, anyone who thinks that people should not watch La Jatee because it's been dubbed are giving extremely bad advice. It would be EXACTLY the same as saying you should not read Tolstoy if you don't read it in its original Russian. IMO, these critics are ivory tower elitists of the worst kind. That said, some of the other shorts are extremely good, and most are at least interesting. Depth Solitude is very nicely shot, and you get over the sense of gimmickry very quickly. Bride of Resistor was not as dark as the first, which I found a little disappointing, but I lived. A Guy Walks Into A Bar I need to watch again; I felt a little ambivalent toward it, mostly as it appeared to me to be something made to pitch a feature (which, hopefully, doesn't get made. It does not have the depth for 90+ minutes). It was a lot more formulaic than most of the movies in this series. The Eye as a Wierd Balloon (the title may not be right, I'm going from memory) is definitely a bizzarre work, though little of the imagery stayed with me even a day later (as opposed to La Jatee, which is hauntingly beautiful and powerful, and burned into my (sub) conscious)) All in all, another quality collection in the Short series.
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