Not having heard Gilliam speak, and not privy to any exclusive information, I would guess that Gilliam had to have seen "La Jetee". Already, "Terminator" and "La Jetee" had nearly covered all the ground on this topic of time travel and saving humanity from itself. I would think he had to have seen "La Jetee" in order to innovate on the subject. Also the preponderance and importance of photographs in "12 monkeys" make me think that this is a main reference to Marker's film, making the story come out of pictures that would otherwise block film movement and thus fiction (see Roger Odin, "The Fiction Film Threatened by Photography and Saved by the Soundtrack: a propos de La Jetee de Chris Marker", in Cinemas de la modernite: films, theories; Paris, Klincksiek, 1981). There are also a large number of very interesting, slow and meaningful cross-fades and dissolves in "12 monkeys", "confusing vision" (Metz), the importance of which in "La Jetee" is underlined by Reda Bensmaia ("Du photogramme au pictogramme: a propos de La Jetee de Chris Marker", in Iris no. 8, 1988). In addition I am convinced that Chris Marker does a Hitchcock in the film, that is he has an uncredited cameo appearance in the airport near the end, riding up an escalator and staring oddly and obliquely past the camera. Moreover this type of appearance would fit in with my ideas of how the two men might work together. Any ideas? -Pip Chodorov <[log in to unmask]> ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]