I (voluntarily) watched a truly odd movie this week (THE THINGS WE DO FOR FILM SHORTS), but before I say anything else about it, you should probably just watch this trailer for it:
Here‘s what I ended up writing about it:
A recent study published in the journal Science found that many adult humans prefer a painful electric shock to being alone with their thoughts. Alain Resnais’ 1968 film Je t’aime je t’aime plays upon this discomfort to nightmarish effect, as a suicidal man is forced to cycle through his past in a time-fracturing scientific experiment. Resnais’ claustrophobic focus and nonlinear structure have been copied endlessly in films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but the cancelation of Je t’aime’s 1968 Cannes premiere meant the film never gained much exposure stateside. The NW Film Center’s new 35mm print should help fill that gap.
That’s right—a crazy historical twist kept this incredibly strange and groundbreaking movie from making it onto US radars, WHILE informing the structures of many contemporary films that fuck with chronology. Take away Resnais’ late-sixties thought experiment, and I’m not sure we hold onto Mulholland Drive, or Memento, or really any of those trying-real-hard-to-be-edgy movies made in, like, 1998. But there’s definitely no Eternal Sunshine, which basically takes Je t’aime‘s plot and turns it happy, which, weird.
Fair warning: Je t’aime je t’aime is hard to watch. The title makes it sound like a winsome romantic comedy, but it’s really a rather bleak two hours of a single character grappling with his experiences and his own thoughts. But if you can sit quietly for a while, you will be richly rewarded by Resnais’ weird, time-splintered echo chamber, and you should go see it. The NW Film Center‘s run starts tonight, with a brand-new (!) 35mm print. It’s two hours of your life you’ll never get back, but it least it’s honest about it.