Je Tu Il Elle

Je Tu Il Elle is a pretty great example of experimental cinema. It’s weird, slow and refuses to explain what it’s actually “about”. It’s also clearly “about” something and loaded with meaning and metaphor. My personal interpretation of the film is that it’s about the gaze and construction of a female self in both isolation and when observed by outsiders. That’s the focus this review is going to take. But what makes Je Tu Il Elle so great is that there are dozens of other interpretations of the film. All could be argued with numerous examples from the text.

The first act of the film features a woman isolated in her apartment. She spends her time eating spoonfuls of sugar, moving furniture and writing increasingly long letters. For over a month, this female character is isolated from anyone who would observe her. In her solitude, this woman pays zero thought to how others might perceive her. She may be as strange, as boring or as nude as she wants without any outside opinions.

This first act is immediately a great representation of Je Tu Il Elle as a whole. It is at once monotonous and weird. The final result is ultimately hypnotic. What is most notable for me is the incredible frank depiction of nudity. In the 1970’s, few if any films could just casually show a titty. It had to be a whole affair because it was still so exciting to see a titty on camera. Even today, many movies seem incapable of depicting a woman being casually nude. There’s almost always an angling of the body towards camera and a style of movement meant to attract the viewer. Je Tu Il Elle is exempt from that. There is nudity, but the main character never performs for the camera or an unseen audience. Many of the shots have her angled away from camera.

Je Tu Il Elle doesn’t remotely care if you find this character attractive or hideous. Again, rather unusual for women on screen. This really helps with immersion into the story. The character is completely uncaring of her own angles as she alone hangs out in her apartment. Because that’s how it happens in reality. But that reality is one rarely shown onscreen. Because director Chantal Ackerman plays this lead character, she’s able to inject a feeling of body neutrality into the proceedings.

The second act of Je Tu Il Elle has the lead character venture into the outside world. She meets a trucker and spends an evening with him. What is notable here is how much the film’s female lead disappears into the background. She rarely speaks and even her previously omni-present voiceover ceases. In place, the trucker monologues to this silent woman. He carries on an evening’s worth of conversation with almost no input from his conversation partner. Despite being literally observed in this act, the female lead becomes more invisible than she was in her own isolation.

The trucker’s attitude is increasingly sexual as the evening goes on. He has the female lead perform give him a handjob. She doesn’t protest, but doesn’t actually consent either. She’s incredibly passive this entire act. As the trucker shares stories about his wife and rough, sexual fantasies, the female lead literally fades into the background. She’s cast in shadow and partially out of frame as the trucker describes the rough sex he wants to have with her. In a very literal way, the trucker perceives the female lead. Yet he doesn’t see her at all. He constructs a version of her that suits his purposes and is happy when she offers no word of disagreement. It is notable that the first and only person the female lead encounters when she exits her isolated apartment is a man who sexualizes her. And also refuses to ask her any questions about herself.

The final act shows the lead going to her ex-lover’s house They share nutella sandwiches and unspecified tension. The lover tells her she can stay the night but must leave in the morning. We then get a lengthy sex scene. But it’s really closer to wrestling. The two women grapple and roll around for several minutes, clutching desperately at one another. This scene is again notable for not highlighting nudity. The women do not remotely perform for the camera. They often face away or engage in positions that block the audience’s view. Sex scenes are an area where the gaze is omnipresent. Almost all sex scenes are positioned with an eye towards the viewers. Je Tu Il Elle does the opposite. While the scene is certainly explicit, the blocking obscures acts from the viewer.

Despite the sex, This lover likely still doesn’t perceive the lead. And the lead certainly doesn’t fully perceive her lover. As an audience thrust into this story, the lover has little depth beyond the relevance she has to the female lead. So, neither of these women truly “see” each other, whatever that means. But at least there’s a sense of equality there. As much as the female lead gazes at her lover, her lover gazes at her too. What’s notable as that the film too treats this gaze more or less equally. Ackerman is a lesbian. It would be understandable if she dedicated more attention and gaze towards a female character not played by herself. But instead, the gaze remains equal. The sex is shot from a static shot at medium distance. Neither woman is prioritized by the camera.

To me, Je Tu Il Elle is about perception of women. We first see a woman in isolation, unobserved. And she’s strange and full of thought. When others perceive her, we know that these characters don’t and indeed cannot know what we, the audience know about her. They’ve not seen her in isolation. But gender and sexuality come into it too. When the female lead is with her lover, they still know each other imperfectly. But there is an equality to their perception of one another. But with the male truck driver, he creates a version of this woman suitable to his interests. And in response, the female lead disappears into the background.

Again, what’s great about the film are there are so many other ways to read this. For example, I don’t think the film is about queerness as much as womanhood. But there’s a very solid argument one could make about how the film is about sexuality. Likewise there are arguments that it’s about society, depression or the inherent weirdness of life itself. The film works so well because it’s so precise. So much thought went into this strange, minimalist story. And that means the output has so much meaning and so much metaphor that viewing the film is a completely individual experience. Everyone will have a different opinion about what Je Tu Il Elle is about. And that’s what makes it so brilliant.

Overall rating: 9.1/10

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