Je t'aime, je t'aime (1968)

Director:

Alain Resnais

Writer:

Jacques Sternberg (writer)

Release Date:

26 April 1968 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The past is the present and future in Alain Resnais' new time machine.

Plot:

Recovering from an attempted suicide, a man is selected to participate in a time travel experiment that has only been tested on mice...

Plot Keywords:

Time Travel | Box Office Flop

Awards:

1 win

Cast

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

Runtime:

USA:91 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Colour:

Colour (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

France:U | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:11

Filming Locations:

Brussels, Brussels-Capital, Belgium

Company:

Les Productions Fox Europa

Soundtrack:

Misterioso

The Most Clever, Thrilling, Styled, 'French for Good' Filmed Biography Ever.

This film's a landmark in french sci-fi. To be honest, french sci-fi can almost be summarized in 'La Jetée', 'Paris n'existe pas' (don't even try to find this one...) and 'Je t'aime, Je t'aime'. Watch the last to catch a glimpse of the process in which Resnais can create a powerful masterpiece out of nothing. The plot's rather simple; a neuropathed mood man (Claude Ridder) who tried to commit suicide is selected by a secret organisation in order to experiment a very dangerous and quite hopeless travel, a journey in his own past. If you ever experienced resnais' border lined cinema, you'll obviously understand that this movie will not use the same old usual vision of time travel, (basically 'where and when' HG Wells stuff ) Formally, try to see it as a sequel of emotional paintings of the hero's past life (more than 150 sequences from 2 seconds to 2 minutes, which may or may not have links between them), about the life which he and his accidentally past away wife Catrine tried to built in the late 60's in Paris. A forced introspection by the most violent and merciless way to revive key moments of his life (re-live them as they happen is the scientific purpose but why not re-live them mixed up with his subjectivity ? How great is the strengh of our past on the present when we have the opportunity to change it ? This film's also about weakness of memories in front of memory's complexity) brought by an organic space machine would of course make the travel more difficult than it is for his companion, an academical white mouse which allow itself to sneak into his past. Human perception of the so-called reality, our ability to create new ones every morning and every time 'self-interrogation about memory and memories' comes from the bottom of forgetfulness to the present moment to change our view on events are described in such a unique and powerful aesthetic way that this piece of cinematograph makes 'Je t'aime, Je t'aime' an unique experiment as 2001 is and will be. No less.