''Je Tu Il Elle'' (; en, "I You He She") 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 studies, film professor at the City College of New York. She is best known for films such as ''Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 108 ...
. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the
Teddy Award
The Teddy Award is an international film award for films with LGBT topics, presented by an independent jury as an official award of the Berlin International Film Festival (the Berlinale). In the most part, the jury consists of organisers of gay a ...
s, 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 Michael ...
in February 2016.
Plot
Julie, the focus of the film, is a young woman who lives alone in her room. For much of the film, she is seen rearranging her furniture, writing letters, lounging in the nude, and eating powdered sugar out of a paper bag. She eventually leaves her room and hitch-hikes with a young male driver. They make stops at a restaurant, a bar, and a restroom, before parting ways. The man solicits her for sex and discusses his family life in a long monologue with Julie.
Julie then stops by the house of a woman, her ex-lover. She makes Julie sandwiches and a drink, then they have sex. Julie leaves the following morning.
Cast
*
Chantal Akerman
Chantal Anne Akerman (; 6 June 19505 October 2015) was a Belgian film director, screenwriter, artist, and Film studies, film professor at the City College of New York. She is best known for films such as ''Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 108 ...
as Julie
*
Niels Arestrup
Niels Arestrup (; born 8 February 1949) is a French-Danish actor, film director and screenwriter. He has won three César Awards.
Biography
Arestrup was born in Paris into a family of modest means; his father was Danish and his mother was Bret ...
as the driver
* Claire Wauthion as the woman
Production
The sex scene between Julie and her ex-lover is the first graphic lesbian sex scene in mainstream cinema, and one 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 of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American 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, and Stephen Wang ...
, 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 Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
1974 films
1974 drama films
1974 LGBT-related films
1970s feminist films
1970s French-language films
Belgian drama films
French drama films
French-language Belgian films
Belgian LGBT-related films
French LGBT-related films
Lesbian-related films
LGBT-related drama films
Films directed by Chantal Akerman
1970s French films
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