“Foolhardy.”
That’s how director Chantal Akerman described her 1974 film JE TU IL ELLE, which she also wrote and starred in. Her partially autobiographical character drifts at an emotional distance from herself, rearranging her room and binge eating and drafting letters to lost love, for the first 30 minutes.
On paper, it sounds pretty flat. Those extended scenes of mundanity are punctuated by listless narration and a couple precious human interactions. Her hookup with a random trucker and her return to a former lover give the story structure, but they also give us a window into the young woman’s emotional state that her own voiceover narration tends to elide.
For a couple of us, JE TU IL ELLE (“I, YOU, HE, SHE”) is the first time we’ve discussed Akerman. It’s as exploratory and halting and caveat-ridden as you’d imagine, but honestly, on this episode of Trylove, these four straight white guys talk not completely stupidly about this groundbreaking work of queer feminist filmmaking.
References:
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Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: "Nous n'irons plus au bois" as heard in JE TU IL ELLE.
Timestamps
0:00 - Episode 402: JE TU IL ELLE (1974)
2:38 - Whadja Watch This Week?
22:44 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary
25:24 - Chantal Akerman and the first act of the movie
35:10 - The “superstructure” and how the acts fit together
44:57 - Mundanity and distortions of modern home life
55:05 - Virginia Woolf and distance from yourself
1:01:12 - Is it worth asking “why” things happen in this movie?
1:08:58 - The final act sex scene
1:24:15 - The Junk Drawer
1:28:19 - Cody’s Noteys: Co Dy’s No Teys (collaborative competitive games)
