Je t'aime, je t'aime (1968): Time Travel, Memory and Loss

Translation for the intro:

A race against time. Office time against outside time.

Who's winning?

I don't know yet.

 

Apologies as I am coming down with a heavy cough and need sleep. I am so out of it that I almost forgot that it is release day! But I jumped out of bed with quite a shock and here you have the episode. Phew!

As always, there are spoilers ahead.

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1968's Je t'aime, je t'aime (AKA I Love You, I Love You). A wonderfully unusual science fiction film about memory, love and loss by French New Wave director Alain Resnais.

If you would like an overview of the plot you can find it on the Wikipedia page here.

The time code after the beep (indicating the discussion about sexual violence is done) 50 minutes and 40 seconds.

I have two magnificent guests!

Mark Bould is a professor of Film and Literature at the University of West England, Bristol. He has written/edited extensively about science fiction cinema.

Mani Sharpe is a lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Leeds. He is the author of the book Late-Colonial French Cinema: Filming the Algerian War of Independence.

At one point Mark mentions Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius by Jorge Luis Borges and I'm mentioning it here as I had to look it up and it might be on interest.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:42 Alain Resnais

07:20 France in 1968

11:27 Cancelled Cannes Film Festival

13:51 Editing and Chronology

20:10 Continuity conventions

24:33 Editing words and memories

33:23 Unreliable Narrator

39:05 The film watching experience

44:21 Loss and heartbreak in sci-fi

50:55 Legacy

55:05 Recommendations

 

Recommendations

New Rose Hotel (1998) by Abel Ferrara

Alain Resnais by Emma Wilson

 

 

NEXT EPISODE!

Wish me luck as I attempt to arrange an episode on Barbarella in two weeks. As this hasn't been finalised I would suggest that you might also like the watch Planet of the Apes just in case should the fates be tricky! Both of these films are quite easy to find to rent.