Je, Tu, Il, Elle

JE, TU, IL, ELLE (I, YOU, HE, SHE)

Belgium / 1974 / 89 min / French / Drama/Experimental
Director: Chantal Akerman
Cast: Chantal Akerman, Neils Arestrup, Claire Wauthian
The Skinny: Makin’ Up Is Long To Do
Plato Score: C+

Plato Says:

A lone woman keeps rewriting letters and re-organizing her sparse bedroom all the while munching on castor sugar and getting naked. You know, the usual Friday night in.

Belgian feminist director Akerman made a splash in the 70s with her incisive and experimental approach to female-driven narratives. And while Je Tu Il Elle may be difficult to endure, it has a very ‘tits-out’ and raw appeal for those hankering for a more cerebral approach to film.

Akerman herself plays Julia, the tormented female who eventually leaves her room and hitches a ride with a lonely trucker who bares his misogynistic soul to her and soon asks for a handjob. Julia finally arrives at her lesbian lover’s place and after some awkward non-conversation has one of the most hysterical (funny-awkward, not funny-haha) love scenes. Their cloying at each other is painfully disturbing (perhaps this was steamy stuff circa 1974)—either way it comes off as unsettling as Halle Berry in Monster’s Ball.

Akerman’s cinematic musings about the nature of sexuality and power are obtuse but definitely thought-provoking: How is sexuality influenced by loneliness and social conventions? Who is the “tu” of the film? The viewer? The patriarchy? And where the heck can one get castor sugar that good?