Por uma história do “tempo”: a temporalidade nas fotografias fixas de “La Jetée” (Chris Marker, 1962)

Abstract

Based on the philosophical discussions of Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze, this dissertation aims to reflect on the issue of “time” (as well as the experience of “timeless”) based on the still photographs from the film “La Jetée” (Chris Marker, 1962). To this end, the research is structured into five chapters. In the first chapter, we conduct a theoretical review (a state of the art) on the concept of “time” – using the techniques of “cinema” and “photography” as a plane of expression (of “imagination”) for the ontology of this “time” – drawing on Bergson, Barthes and Deleuze, and analyzing 41 theses and dissertations found through an advanced search in the Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD). The second and third chapters discuss the categories of “memory” and “image”, respectively, and their interrelations with “time” and “cinema”. The fourth chapter focuses on Gilles Deleuze's reflections on the relationships between “time”, “duration” and “cinema”, inspired by Henri Bergson's philosophy. In the fifth chapter, we analyze the theme, frames and film sequences, in addition to certain aesthetic strategies of “La Jetée” – namely, voice-over; still photographs; editing; moving images; among others – seeking to unveil, through the film, the experience of “time” (and “timeless”) and its relationships with “memory”, “images” and “cinema” as discussed in the earlier chapters. In the search, therefore, not for a single “image”, but for (multiple and heterogeneous) “images” of “time”, we conclude our dissertation by understanding that “La Jetée” (1962) – beyond the techniques of cinema and/or photography – is, first and foremost, a film – an “image” about the problem of “time”. That’s why, in addition to Bergson and Deleuze, authors such as Barthes, Foucault, Crary, Benjamin, Agamben, Lissovsky, Didi-Huberman, Guattari and Dubois will be fundamental to our discussions.