Je t'aime moi non plus (film)
Je t'aime moi non plus (English title: I Love You, I Don't) is a 1976 feature film written, directed, and scored by Serge Gainsbourg, starring Jane Birkin, Hugues Quester and Joe Dallesandro, and featuring a cameo by Gérard Depardieu.
- For the song, see Je t'aime... moi non plus. For the album, see Jane Birkin Serge Gainsbourg.
| Je t'aime moi non plus | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Serge Gainsbourg |
| Produced by | Claude Berri Jacques-Eric Strauss |
| Written by | Serge Gainsbourg |
| Starring | Jane Birkin Joe Dallesandro Hugues Quester Liliane Rovère Gérard Depardieu |
| Music by | Serge Gainsbourg |
| Cinematography | Willy Kurant |
| Edited by | Kenout Peltier |
| Distributed by | AMLF (1976) (France) |
Release date | 10 March 1976 (France) |
Running time | 89 min |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Plot
A frail and love-starved young woman, Johnny (Jane Birkin), works in a truckstop café in the middle of nowhere. One day enter two gay truckers, manly and worldwise Krassky (Joe Dallesandro) and his lover Padovan (Hugues Quester), young and handsome, but immature and rather a handful.
Krassky, tired of taking care of Padovan who keeps getting into trouble, discovers in himself an attraction for this boyish girl, and she falls head over heels for him. They start a relationship; and even if at first Krassky's body hesitates before the meager feminine graces of curveless Johnny, he ends up being charmed by her naïve and unconditional love.
She is ready to accept anything out of love for him, including anal sex, though quite inexperienced at this, so that her screams of pain cause them to be thrown out of several motels. In the end, the back of Krassky's dirty garbage truck will be the theatre of their union.
Furiously jealous, Padovan tries to kill Johnny by suffocating her. Krassky intervenes and saves Johnny, but does it so idly that Johnny gets enraged and furiously insults him. Krassky then returns to his first love and leaves with him, abandoning Johnny in her café, brokenhearted and lonely again.
Cast
- Jane Birkin as Johnny
- Joe Dallesandro as Krassky
- Hugues Quester as Padovan
- Reinhard Kolldehoff as Boris
- Gérard Depardieu as The peasant
- Jimmy Davis as Moïse
- Maïté Nahyr as The prostitute
- Liliane Rovère as The motel client
- Michel Blanc as A worker
- Claudia Butenuth as The customer
Motives
Je t'aime moi non plus was the first film directed by Gainsbourg.[1] Jane Birkin was his partner at that time.[2] It includes elements of symbolism recurrent in Gainsbourg's work: passion to the death and uncensored eroticism. Depardieu has a few short appearances, playing a passing cynical gay local.
References
- Travers, James (May 12, 2007). "Review of the film Je t'aime moi non plus (1976)". frenchfilms.org.
- "Shadows on the Wall | Arthouse Films". www.shadowsonthewall.co.uk.
External links
- Je t'aime moi non plus at IMDb
- Sargent, Jack (January 2004). "Hot, Hard Cocks and Tight, Tight Unlubricated Assholes: Transgression, Sexual Ambiguity and "Perverse" Pleasures in Serge Gainsbourg's Je t'aime moi non plus". Sense of Cinema. Retrieved 4 August 2010.