I’ve come up with a ton of excuses. I saw a film comprised entirely of still photography on the pixellated and unpleasant Google Video. I saw the film dubbed in English instead of subtitled in the original french. I saw it as the third of three movies in a row and perhaps fatigue had set in. I’ve been trying to see it for so long (since the 12 Monkeys DVD was released in 1998) that it attained a near-mythical status. Whatever the excuse, the fact remains that I didn’t enjoy La Jetée as much as I thought I would.

The most likely explanation for my being underwhelmed was that it is clearly the inspiration for 12 Monkeys and thus I appraised it as a reader’s digest version of that movie as opposed to viewing 12 Monkeys as the fleshed-out version of it.

It certainly merits a rewatch, but I think I’ll hold out for the still unattainable decent quality, subtitled version.