On the Invention of the Moving Image
In La Jetee, Chris Marker’s film constructed primarily of still photographs, there’s a moment of movement toward movie’s end, when the time traveler and the woman from the past, whom he’s come to love, are in bed, and the woman turns, slowly. We hear a bit of breath, a sheet brushing against skin. We see a lock of her hair falling gently over her face.
I have a video of him, filmed accidentally when learning to use my camera. He sits, nonchalantly, on the bed, in the background the sound of birdsong and traffic. He doesn’t say anything, simply turns his head toward the camera, then away. It’s over in seconds. I’ve played that video every day since he passed. With the advent of the motion picture, we no longer needed ghosts. It takes so little to fill, then break, the heart.
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