Je t'aime moi non plus

We learn several things about Jane Birkin (once something of a sex symbol) here: 1 She bellows as loud and roughly as any woman I've ever seen on screen; really, REALLY loud; 2 She fakes a woman who finds anal intercourse unbearably painful really well (how realistic you find this may be based on your preconceptions about that act or your actual experience; I found it a touch over the top); 3 She really did have an incredibly boyish, nay, disturbingly thin, body in this period; sometimes distractingly so. She certainly had elfin charm at this point in her life and is most compelling when she's not.. well, screaming. (What does it say about her husband casting her in a distinctively masochistic role? Probably not much more than that, as a couple, they liked to maintain a faintly scandalous image.) Casting Joe Dallesandro was an interesting nod to Warhol, intended or not, though I don't think Gainsbourg was much associated with him. In a film which focuses more on his face than other attributes which brought him to prominence, he uses it well. There are some stray cameos by famous French actors like Gerard Depardieu and Michel Blanc. Overall, the film feels like a French homage to the darker sort of modern American Western, with lots of dreary landscapes and the arrival of two drifters. A lot of it feels cliché, albeit with a sense of homage, and the story is rather desultory overall. There are touches of humor, notably in the hotels where Birkin's character's... discomfort... greatly disturbs the other guests. Apparently Truffaut loved this film. I didn't.

A young elfin-looking waitress (Jane Birkin) who works at a sleazy diner of the middle of nowhere France falls in love with a garbage man (Joe Dallesandro) who everyone warns her is gay. She pursues the relationship, but things don't work out too well. He only likes to have sex in a very uncomfortable manner for her, and her pained cries get them thrown out of several motels and apartments. She also has to deal with the jealously of her lover's male "friend"/co-worker, and with her own domineering, disgusting, and flatulent older boss.

French films and Hollywood films are very different, but one thing they have in common is the tendency to have incredibly attractive actors unconvincingly slumming in unglamorous roles. Bisexual hustler/actor Joe Dallesandro (who was the "Little Joe" immortalized in Lou Reed's song "Walk on the Wild Side") is probably the best-looking garbageman in the history of garbage. And Jane Birkin, the real-life wife/lover of musician Serg Gainsboug, the director of this (the couple duet-ed on a hit pop song "Je'Taime Moi Non Plus" from which this movie takes title), is a stunning beauty who would NEVER be reduced to slinging hash in a crappy diner. The movie seems to be trying to trade on the androgyny of the couple. Birkin's character has a short haircut and is nicknamed "Johnny". But despite her A-cup breasts NOBODY is going to mistake Birkin for a boy (at least with her clothes off). And Dallesandro may be pretty, but he's much more of a muscular stud than an effeminate pretty boy (Ironically, the androgynous "unisex sex" thing was done much better fifteen years later in the "Cement Garden", which was directed by Jane's brother Andrew Birkin and featured the couple's grown daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg).

This film is kind of interesting in that, despite the perpetual nudity by the two uber-attractive leads, it doesn't go for the easy romantic or erotic angle (unless you consider sodomy in the back of a garbage truck erotic or romantic). In some ways it's a fairly realistic and downbeat film. It's actually kind of like a Catherine Breillat film (well, maybe it's not quite THAT downbeat). Gerard Depardieu also shows in a small role as a homophobic thug. And, of course, the music is quite good. This might be worth seeing if you know what to expect.

A decidedly off-beat love story as two characters from the fringe seek love in a wasteland of flesh and garbage, only to find it fleetingly in the back of a garbage truck. Kurant's luminous cinematography and Gainsbourg's leisurely pace do much to bring beauty to scenes that might otherwise be unbearably sordid.

Dallesandro and Birkin are beautiful to look at and play a dysfunctional couple in more ways than one. The film explores the poignancy of emotional need, the vulnerability to abuse and the impossibility of communication within the couple. It's a tale of surprising tenderness and cruelty.

Gainsbourg's soundtrack is surprisingly sparse, but used imaginatively and with more than a hint of irony.

We had hoped that Serge Gainsbourg's most well-known film would demonstrate his interesting - if a bit twisted - perspective and style. Unfortunately, by the time "Je t'aime moi non plus" was made, Serge had become an "old fart", to borrow a recurring line from the movie. Instead of the inventive, hip Serge of the 'sixties, pulling musical influences from around the globe and spicing them up with naughty references, he had become the jaded fatalist, using shock value out of habit rather than effect. It would also appear that he had been a bit too influenced by Godard's "Weekend" for his own good. Long tracking shots of the protagonist's truck passing aimlessly through a barren landscape littered with wrecked cars are employed at least four times. What this film and its actors really needed were a plot and some actual dialogue. Birkin, Dallesandro and the rest of the cast do credible jobs with what they've been given to work with, but their doomed love triangle is bog-standard 1950s melodrama, with a gay twist. Absolutely wasted here is Gerard Depardieu, who turns in an awkward and unconvincing cameo as a homosexual beastialist. Thankfully, Gainsbourg still had talent in him as a composer, and the film benefits from his soundtrack. I suspect he was not encouraged to attempt more directorial efforts, as after "Je t'aime..." he only did vanity films.

The film is a classic one. Jane Birkin incredibly sexy and Depardieu in a surprise-part. Erotic scenes that you will never forget...