''Je Tu Il Elle'' (; ) is a 1974 French-Belgian film by the Belgian film director

Chantal Akerman Chantal Anne Akerman (; 6 June 19505 October 2015) was a Belgian film director, screenwriter, artist, and film professor at the City College of New York. Akerman is best known for her films (1974), (1975), and '' News from Home'' (1976). The ...

. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Teddy Awards, the film was selected to be shown at the

66th Berlin International Film Festival The 66th Berlin International Film Festival was held from 11 to 21 February 2016, with American actress Meryl Streep as the president of the jury. The Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement was presented to German cinematographer Michae ...

in February 2016.

Plot

Julie, the narrator of the film, lives alone in her room. For the first third of the film, she rearranges her furniture, writes letters, lounges naked, and eats sugar out of a paper bag. She eventually leaves her room and hitchhikes with a young male driver. They make stops at a restaurant, a bar, and a restroom. She gives him a

handjob A handjob (also spelled hand job) is a manual sex act involving a person stimulating the penis or scrotum of another by using the hand. This is done to induce an erection for sexual pleasure, sexual arousal and may result in orgasm and ejaculat ...

and he discusses his family life in a long monologue, before they part ways. Julie then visits a woman, her ex-lover, who makes Julie sandwiches and a drink. Julie then suggestively begins to undress the woman, and they have sex. Julie's narration says the woman told her she had to leave in the morning, and she does.

Cast

as Julie *

Niels Arestrup Niels Arestrup (; 8 February 1949 – 1 December 2024) was a French-Danish actor, film director and screenwriter. Early life and career Arestrup was born in Paris on 8 February 1949, into a family of modest means; his father was Danish and his ...

as the driver * Claire Wauthion as the woman

Production

Akerman wrote the story for the film a few years prior to filming that she described once as both very personal along with not autobiographical due to its structure that mixes with her experiences as a teenager. The sex scene between Julie and her ex-lover is the first graphic lesbian sex scene in mainstream cinema, and one of the longest lesbian sex scenes in film.

Critical reception

The movie was well received by critics. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has a 100% rating based on reviews from 8 critics, and an average rating of 7.80/10.

References

External links

* * *
Je tu il elle
' at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

''Je tu il elle''
at

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...

{{Authority control 1974 films 1974 drama films 1974 independent films 1974 LGBTQ-related films 1970s feminist films 1970s French-language films Belgian drama films French drama films Belgian independent films French independent films French-language Belgian films Belgian LGBTQ-related films French LGBTQ-related films Lesbian-related films 1970s LGBTQ-related drama films Films directed by Chantal Akerman 1970s French films French-language drama films