Je t'aime, je t'aime

Je t'aime, je t'aime
Film poster
Directed by Alain Resnais
Produced by Mag Bodard
Written by Jacques Sternberg
Alain Resnais
Starring Claude Rich
Music by Krzysztof Penderecki
Cinematography Jean Boffety
Edited by Albert Jurgenson
Colette Leloup
Release date
  • 26 April 1968 (1968-04-26)
Running time
 91 minutes
Country France
Language French
Box office $3 million[1]

Je t'aime, je t'aime ("I Love You, I Love You") is a 1968 French science fiction film directed by Alain Resnais from a screenplay by Jacques Sternberg. The plot centres on Claude Ridder (Claude Rich) who is asked to participate in a mysterious experiment in time travel when he leaves the hospital after a failed suicide attempt. The experiment, intended to return him after one minute of observing the past, instead causes him to experience his past in a disjointed fashion. His fate is left ambiguous.

The film was listed to compete at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival,[2] but the festival was cancelled due to the countrywide wildcat strike that occurred in May 1968 in France. It won two awards – one for best actor, and the other many years later for "best rediscovery" in 2014 (Special Award of the Boston Society of Film Critics).[3]

While seldom ranked among Resnais's best works, Je t'aime, je t'aime has received positive reviews since its release. Its synopsis has been cited as an influence on the 2004 Michel Gondry film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.[4][5]

Plot

Claude Ridder (Claude Rich) is leaving hospital after a failed attempt at suicide, when he is asked to participate in a mysterious experiment in time travel by a private research body. They have succeeded in sending mice back unharmed for periods of one minute, but need to send a human back to confirm the subject did actually revisit the past. Claude agrees, but instead of returning promptly as the mice had done, he re-experiences many episodes from his past in a highly disjointed and fragmented manner, in interludes of seconds or minutes.

Claude's observations culminate in his admission – which he later says he fabricated – that he had killed his terminally ill life partner, Catrine, painlessly by gas poisoning, upon seeing her in her sleep – for the first time in her life – completely happy and without fear, and his attempted suicide upon then finding he could not live with, or without, her.

The researchers wait an hour before concluding they will never get him back, and his fate is left ambiguous.

Cast

  • Claude Rich as Claude Ridder
  • Olga Georges-Picot as Catrine
  • Anouk Ferjac as Wiana Lust
  • Alain MacMoy as Le technicien qui vient chercher Ridder
  • Vania Vilers as Le technicien-chauffeur
  • Ray Verhaeghe as Le technicien aux souris
  • Van Doude as Jan Rouffer, le chef du centre de recherches de Crespel
  • Yves Kerboul as Le technicien au tableau noir
  • Dominique Rozan as Le médecin de Crespel / Doctor Haesserts
  • Annie Bertin as La jeune femme à la trompette
  • Jean Michaud as Le directeur de la maison de diffusion
  • Claire Duhamel as Jane Swolfs
  • Bernard Fresson as Bernard Hannecart
  • Sylvain Dhomme as L'homme qui invite Ridder à dîner
  • Irène Tunc as Marcelle Hannecart

Reception

Today, Je t'aime, je t'aime is reviewed positively by critics; review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports 83% approval (based on six critics' reviews), with an average rating of 7.5/10.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Je t\'aime, je t\'aime (1968)- JPBox-Office". Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  2. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: Je t'aime, je t'aime". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  3. ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063152/awards?ref_=tt_awd
  4. ↑ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (19 March 2004). "A Stylist Hits His Stride (ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND)". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  5. ↑ "Je t'aime, je t'aime". The Cinematheque. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  6. ↑ "Je t'aime, je t'aime on RT". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
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