It's a twofer from the Criterion Collection!Let's start with La Jetee, the far superior film. Told completely in still images, this is the (30 minute!) story of a man (Davos Hanich) who is sent to the past by a cruel Experimenter (Jacques Ledoux) in the aftermath of World War 3. He meets a woman (Helene Chatelain) and loves her even though he is constantly getting shuffled back to his time.
This is the film Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys is based on, which becomes readily apparent as you watch. It's completely in black and white but the Criterion people have done the voiceover narration in English so you don't have to suffer through subtitles. Rob was watching it over his shoulder while he did his homework and said it sounded like the world's creepiest documentary so it has that going for it. I really enjoyed it. Plus, there's a bunch of special features, including part of an interview about David Bowie's 1993 video "Jump They Say" which was inspired by the film.
If Bowie and Gilliam approve it, you probably don't need any more recommendations.
Moving on to Sans Soleil. Holy shit, this was so boring I had to go take a nap afterwards. Seriously, I'd put it in the same category as Tree of Life. That category is decent travelogues marred by bullshit philosophical mouthings. Moving from 80's Japan to Iceland to Africa, the whole thing is loosely tied together by narration of a woman reading letters from a cameraman. Snoozefest. You'd be better off just watching La Jetee alone. I'm pretty sure you can find the whole thing on YouTube.
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