In this blog post, we will examine how the ways ‘La Jetée’ and ‘Eternal Sunshine’ handle memory and time lead to different conclusions, exploring their narrative structures and the meaning of love.
Can love within memory be eternal?
Our lives are thoroughly realist. We live daily routines following almost identical patterns. We work, study, eat, and sleep. Though we feel each day—yesterday and today—is largely indistinguishable, we never truly remain the same beings. Because time has already flowed by for another day. Time possesses the power to destroy everything in the world. Even colossal sculptures are ultimately reduced to rusted scrap metal before its passage. We live as if carried along by this flow of time, yet everyone at some point longs to return to a moment in their past memories or dreams of traveling to an imagined future yet to come.
The protagonist of “La Jetée” (1962) journeys into the past to find the woman etched in his memory. He longs to live with her within that time, which exists only in his recollection. Conversely, Joel in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004) undergoes the process of having his memories of Clementine erased, desperately struggling to hold onto them before they are completely deleted. Thus, both characters yearn to live and love within the space of memory where she exists. Yet memory is not a real space. It is the afterimage of time, which does not physically exist. So, can eternal sunshine truly shine upon those who dream of love within memory? I find myself pondering this question.
The Allure of SF: The Magic of Time
Our time, devoid of magic, flows only in a straight line. The horizon of time we perceive may be a concept existing only within grammatical structures. Yet in “La Jetée,” time circulates in a nonlinear structure. The protagonist travels through a past existing only in memory and a future yet to come. How fascinating an imagination this is. The film’s temporal structure connects and repeats like a Möbius strip, where past, present, and future are not distinctly separated. For the protagonist, the distinction of time loses meaning, and only memory remains as substance.
Joel in “Eternal Sunshine” lives in the present while undergoing the process of having his memories erased. In contrast, the protagonist of “La Jetée” uses the present as a medium to live within his memories. The magic of time inherent in the sci-fi genre operates in distinct ways within these two films. Notably, “La Jetée” was re-evaluated as one of the greatest films in history in a 2012 poll of critics conducted by the British Film Institute, and it continues to be recognized as a work that has influenced various time-travel narratives. In this way, the film transcends its era, compelling us to contemplate time itself.
“La Jetée” begins and ends in the same space. The same actions repeat in the same space, and the same events unfold, yet they do not exist in the same time. This is the core of the film’s circular structure. “Eternal Sunshine” also adopts a circular form, but the two characters meet again within the same present time. The ending of “La Jetée,” where the protagonist sought to live within memory, contrasts with Joel’s conclusion, where he ultimately returns to the present and begins love anew. In the final scene of “La Jetée,” he stands on the runway he saw as a child, but the figure standing there is no longer a child. It is his present self, facing death, standing there. The beginning and end are the same place, but the time is never the same.
Icon of Melodrama: Her Image
One of the most intensely lingering impressions while watching “La Jetée” is the face of the woman illuminated within memory.
Her image is etched with infinite tenderness. The man visits the past following that image, sharing time with her. Through repeated visits, she too accepts him, and trust builds between them. The man pursuing the image of a woman he barely knew, and the woman gradually drawn to this stranger, follow the classic conventions of melodrama.
A similar structure can be found in “Eternal Sunshine.” The two begin a love affair through a chance encounter and remain as lovely images etched in each other’s memories. Yet, that image too is a product of memory. They love the version of her created within their memories and wish to live within that memory. It is precisely at this point that conflict arises. Because it is a love for a woman existing within the non-existent space of memory.
While sharing a tragic tone, these two films diverge in direction. One culminates in death, the other leads back to a new beginning. Yet in both cases, love is sustained only through the imperfect medium of memory.
The Boundary Between Genres
“La Jetée” and “Eternal Sunshine” do not physically manipulate time. Instead, they alter memory through devices like hypnosis or memory erasure. Rather than returning to the past to realize an ideal love, the protagonists live lives haunted by their own memories. While this plot seems to present a utopian fantasy, it ultimately leads to a dystopian conclusion.
The protagonist of “La Jetée” spends happy times with the woman in his memory, but that love ultimately ends in death. In “Eternal Sunshine,” Joel sought to erase the traces of a failed love, but during the memory deletion process, he instead realizes the preciousness of that love. What he witnesses is Clementine fading away within his memories, and he cries out before that scene. The ending faced by those who dreamed of utopia ultimately takes the form of loss.
However, the final destinations of the two films differ. Joel returns to the present with his memory erased and falls in love with Clementine again. This is the form of a melodramatic happy ending. In contrast, the protagonist of “La Jetée” meets his death, unable to escape the dystopian world. Though the same events repeat, it is not a complete cycle but a tragic conclusion. This ending reveals the traditional conventions of science fiction cinema.
Frozen Images and Fragmented Memories
The formal characteristic of “La Jetée” is the photoroman. Photoroman means “photo-novel,” where the narrative unfolds through frozen images and narration. Time does not flow in photographs. Therefore, the film’s minimal unit is sometimes defined not as a frame but as a shot with movement. However, in this work, instead of movement, frozen images connect like fragments of memory.
The protagonist’s act of entering the past within his memory is not a reversal of time. It is merely the act of remembering. Nevertheless, he believes he lives within that space and tries to hold onto love. This structure resembles the format of gradually erased memories in “Eternal Sunshine.” While the two films adopt different formats, they share a similar structure in terms of the fragmentation of memory.
“La Jetée” unfolds through narration closely resembling a novelistic first-person perspective. Just as we remember dreams through images, the audience follows the narrative not through moving pictures but through still images. Fragmented memories are reconstructed into a single narrative through the narration. With almost no dialogue, the voice-over takes center stage, clearly delineating ambiguously generated temporal divisions. In “Eternal Sunshine,” Joel’s narration similarly reminds us that he is a living being inhabiting the present.
Love Remaining in the Present
No matter how much the man in “La Jetée” and Joel in “Eternal Sunshine” live entangled in memory, they are ultimately beings living in the present.
We live within time that we cannot definitively say flows forward or backward. The only reality for us is the present. The past remains as memory; the future as expectation and imagination.
He in “La Jetée,” who met death by retracing his memories, and Joel, who experienced death within memory and now lives in the present once more. For them, the film’s ending is not merely a conclusion. He who reached death left eternal love within memory, and Joel, who began anew, creates another eternity within the present. Sunshine always shines upon their present. And it will be the same for us. Whether in memory or in the present, it is precisely in this moment we live that each person’s eternal sunshine resides.
