Recent Thoughts

Objective and Subjective Orientation in Chantal Akerman’s Je Tu Il Elle Chantal Akerman plays Julie, the main character, in her first feature-length film, Je Tu Il Elle , which translates to I...You...He...She in English. The film is divided into three movements. The first shows Julie in self-inflicted isolation in her room. She rearranges her furniture, eats spoonfuls of sugar repetitively, dresses and undresses, writes and rewrites a letter to someone she refers to as “you”, and lays down lethargically, narrating her actions before they occur or sometimes without subsequently performing them. She remarks that it has been almost a month, and when the snow melts and she sees someone outside, she departs. She hitches a ride with a truck driver, initiating the second movement of the film. Inside the car, the truck driver puts her hand on his penis and instructs her to masturbate him. He drives Julie to her destination, marking the third movement of the film. Julie arrives at th