Man! A remarkable accomplishment, if only at a logistical level. Memento, schmemento! This is more than just hard work and resourcefulness, though. Renaissance is a very rich little fable, or a richly confounding absurd assemblage. It’s the remembrance of things past. The seeming prescience of some objects. The fetishization of objects. The best laid plans, going aft agley. How the private is never safe from the public. Or how regardless of externals, we eventually destroy ourselves.
The image of the family adds a particular poignancy. Is it the holocaust? Can an East/West work of this vintage ever be quite clear of it? I don’t know about La Jetée (Borowczyk and Marker had recently collaborated, of course), but Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys seems to be a complete remake. Quite remarkable.