This morning I watched a beautiful and interesting film, La Jetee, by director Chris Marker. Not only are the film's images and narratives beautiful, but also the feelings and themes that the film projects. In some ways the film felt like a sci-fi movie, with the time travel and all. However, it has more. Something that is hard to put a finger on exactly.
As the main character "traveled back into time" or as I interpreted it, dreamt about what the past could have been, I got an overwhelming feeling of familiarity. When we dream, we remember certain images, it could be a long lost friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, really anything. He remembered the image of that woman on the pier at Orly as a child and created memories in his dreams about her, something that we do every night when we drift off in REM sleep.
His dreams were a way of escaping from the horror around him: World War III, the collapse of Paris, and human torture. He was able to feel and experience feelings of happiness, and go to a place where he felt alive and free.
The man loved this woman on the peir, even though he may have never really been with her during his life. As humans, we meet people, create friendship, fall in love, and sometimes fall out of that love. But we never forget how we felt when we were happy. Dreams allow us to keep a certain person close to us even though they may be far away and out of our lives. Sometimes we wish we could forget someone but our mind will not let us, and every once in a while, we'll dream about that person. Dreams are an amazing part of our existance that I sometimes think we take for granted.
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