Je Tu Il Elle (1974)

'Je' is a girl voluntarily lock up in a room. 'Tu' is the script. 'Il' is a lorry driver. 'Elle' is the girlfriend.

Director:

Chantal Akerman

Writers:

Chantal Akerman, Eric De Kuyper

Stars:

Chantal Akerman, Niels Arestrup, Claire Wauthion

Cast

Credited cast:
Chantal Akerman	...	Julie
Niels Arestrup	...	Truck-driver
Claire Wauthion	...	Girlfriend

Storyline

For more than a month, eating only powered sugar, a woman tries to deal with a breakup: she paints her room twice, removes the furniture, writes and rewrites a letter to her lover, clarifying all she had said. She spreads the pages on the floor. She lies down and waits. Finally, her sugar eaten, she is hungry and leaves. She flags down a truck; she and the trucker drive through the dark, stopping at a diner and bars. He asks for a hand job, she complies. He talks about his wife, children, and sex life. She arrives at the flat of her lover, a woman, who tells her she cannot stay. She says she is hungry, so her lover feeds her then allows her to stay the night. They make love.

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Plot Keywords:

feminist film | lesbian sex | lesbianism | female nudity | nudity | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

This film is included in Criterion's Eclipse Series 19: Chantal Akerman in the Seventies.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Julie: And so I left. A tiny white room - on the ground floor - as narrow as a corridor - where I lie, motionless - and alert - on my mattress. The first day I painted the furniture blue.

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Connections

Referenced in I Love Dick: The Conceptual Fuck (2017)

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Soundtracks

Theme from 'Last Tango in Paris'
(uncredited)
Composed and performed by Gato Barbieri

User Reviews

Painfully Naked Honesty in Examination of Identity and Sexuality

Some use film-making as a tool to reflect themselves and search their identities. With her first important feature, Je, tu, il, elle, Chantal Akerman relays this tradition, which has been established and inherited mostly by generations of female filmmakers, from Maya Deren to Rose Troche and Jennie Livingston. Like Deren, Akerman combines a traditional narrative and surrealistic ingredients, but Akerman's surrealism is more true-to-life than Deren's, as seen in a sugar-only diet of "Je" or a wrestling-like foreplay between "Je" and "Elle." Painfully naked honesty in these scenes shows how seriously Akerman is in need of examining her identity and sexuality.

(The surface of the film extremely resembles Stranger Than Paradise by Jim Jarmusch, completed in 1983; the two films share the three-episode plot and the B/W medium shots by the fixed camera without panning/tilting/dollying. But this may be irrelevant for viewing this Akerman film.)

Details

Official Sites:

World Artists

Country:

France Belgium

Language:

French

Release Date:

27 December 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

Je Tu Il Elle

Company Credits

Production Co:

French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paradise Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1