MovieChat Forums > Je t'aime, je t'aime (1968) Discussion > Wow!

Wow!

posted 17 years ago by kriege10
9 replies | jump to latest

This film is up there with "Hiroshima, mon amour", "Last Year at Marienbad", "Muriel", and "La guerre est finie", (not to mention the short "Night and Fog", which so many people all over the world have seen without necessarily making the connection that it was directed by the same man who made "Marienbad"!) It is part of the same great period. Amazingly, it is never shown and is practically unobtainable. It may be Resnais's most difficult film, certainly no easier than "Marienbad". I can't say it is the most beautiful to look at, although the worse than mediocre visual quality of the video I saw did not make it easy to make a fair assessment. It is, however, so complex that you really need multiple viewings to get a handle on it. As for figuring it out completely, that I am not sure about.

Anyway, this is an amazing work of art.

[–] timmy_501 16 years ago

I agree 100%. Why the other films you mention are fairly easy to obtain and, in the case of the former 2, quite well known and this film is obscure and unknown I'll never know.

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[–] Ethan_Ford 16 years ago

It didn`t do particularly well at the box office which doesn`t really surprise but I think it is definitely one of his four or five best films. A big influence on "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind".

[–] timmy_501 16 years ago

I'm surprised it didn't do as well as Marienbad or Hiroshima, Mon Amour at the box office.

I haven't seen "Eternal Sunshine" yet, I guess I need to hurry up and get to it.

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[–] ilpohirvonen 13 years ago

Yea if you look at history you'll see why it didn't do well at the box office like Hiroshima mon amour. It was left in the shadows of the year's events.

[–] franzkabuki 13 years ago

Not sure if it´s Resnais´s most complex exercise in exploring memories and montage - how could anyone upon only one viewing? - but it sure is his most enigmatic and confusing. In terms of pacing & tonal consistency, it´s probably not as accomplished as the pitch perfect flow of imagery and sound in Marienbad, but for a work as maddeningly fragmented as this, that´s somewhat to be expected. A great film nevertheless - and I don´t think we´re ever meant to "figure it out", at least not in terms of what ´exactly´ happened in the protagonist´s life, beyond the broad strokes. For a movie emphasising the fragility and unreliability of memory, that goes with the territory.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] zill_o_the_wisp 12 years ago

kriege, you're always separating Resnais from 1955-late '60s as his "great period" and eluding to the rest as a "slump", but how many of his made past the 1960s have you seen?
'Providence', 'La Vie est un Roman', 'L'Amour a Mort', are in no way a slump from his grand and groundbreaking accomplishments of the '50s-60s. They are major works of art as well.
The more literary-based movies like 'Melo', 'Smoking/No Smoking', 'Private Fears in Public Places' and 'Wild Grass' are also excellent.
'Stavisky...' was not one of his greatest, but it is a fine movie all the same, and not too much a disappointment from the same writer as 'La Guerre est finie'.

Anyway, agreed on the need for this movie to be made more widely available in acceptable formats.
I saw it twice at the American Cinematheque last decade, and it is one of his most visually beautiful films, certainly among the color films. Although nothing compares to 'Muriel', quite possibly the greatest color film every made.

[–] 12 years ago

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