# Je t'aime je t'aime
**Je t'aime, je t'aime** (French for "I love you, I love you") is a 1968 French science-fiction drama directed by [Alain Resnais](https://www.edgepedia.org/alain-resnais) and written by Resnais with the science-fiction author Jacques Sternberg, in which a man recovering from a suicide attempt becomes the human subject of a time travel experiment that malfunctions and traps him in fragments of his own past.[1](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/33489) • [2](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/je_taime_je_taime) It stars Claude Rich as Claude Ridder, with Olga Georges-Picot as Catrine and Anouk Ferjac as Wiana Lust.[3](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/50886.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writers | Alain Resnais; screenplay by Jacques Sternberg with Resnais[1](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/33489) |
| Country / year | France, 1968; producer Mag Bodard[4](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/401149/) |
| French release | CNC visa no. 33489 dated 12 April 1968; release in French cinemas 25 April 1968 per the CNC, 26 April per the BnF and AlloCiné[1](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/33489) • [5](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark%3A/12148/cb170611466) • [6](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D2163.html) |
| Running time | 95 min on the CNC visa record; other sources give 91, 94, or 82 min for cut versions[1](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/33489) • [3](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/50886.html) • [2](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/je_taime_je_taime) |
| Key crew | Krzysztof Penderecki (music), Jean Boffety (cinematography), Colette Leloup and Albert Jurgenson (editing)[7](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Je_taime_je_taime/5665) |
| Cannes | Selected In Competition, Feature Films, 1968 Festival de Cannes[8](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/je-t-aime-je-t-aime/) |
| Later standing | 90% Tomatometer (10 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes; described by Cornell Cinema as a major influence on *Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind*[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/je_taime_je_taime) • [10](https://cinema.cornell.edu/je-taime-je-taime) |
## Spoilers
### Story and structure
After a failed suicide attempt, the office employee Claude Ridder is approached by scientists who see him, having lived between life and death, as the ideal subject for a dangerous experiment: a one-minute journey into the past, exactly one year before the date of the voyage.[7](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Je_taime_je_taime/5665) • [17](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/je-t-aime-je-t-aime-2/) The experiment has been tested only on mice, but humans are conscious of time and memory in a way animals are not, and once the machine goes haywire Ridder is caught in a series of not-quite-random oscillations around the period of his unhappy love affair with Catrine.[2](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/je_taime_je_taime) • [11](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/je-taime-je-taime)
The oscillations vary in length from seconds to minutes, sometimes replaying the same scene with subtle variations and sometimes visiting fantasy events as if they were real, so that memory, with its distortions, carries the same weight as fact.[2](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/je_taime_je_taime) The film's structure follows from Sternberg's conception, which was based on the flashback but not on the return to important moments; instead it dwells on insignificant, dead moments that are absurd and ordinary yet make up almost all of a life, and whose significance can emerge later.[12](https://dspace.ut.ee/bitstreams/f7a1a74e-8031-46de-aa84-5d24b80496ab/download) The science-fiction premise is, in the Science Fiction Encyclopedia's phrase, almost incidental: the film uses time travel to ask to what extent a person can withdraw from his own past and from the processes of time.[2](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/je_taime_je_taime)
## Production and craft
Resnais and Sternberg had worked together before: in Resnais's contribution to the collective film *Loin du Viêt-nam* (1967) he invented a character named Claude Ridder, who reappears in *Je t'aime je t'aime* played by a different actor.[13](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/alain-resnais/la-guerre-est-finie-1966-je-taime-je-taime-1968-stavisky-1974/E4F88406D64E2946AF8D953198854A04) Sternberg was a French science-fiction author of distinction, and the film's retrofuturistic machine design is credited to his imagination.[2](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/je_taime_je_taime) • [9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/je_taime_je_taime) According to Sternberg, Resnais respected the screenplay's sequences and removed only three or four of them during shooting, although the finished film differs from the original script in other respects.[12](https://dspace.ut.ee/bitstreams/f7a1a74e-8031-46de-aa84-5d24b80496ab/download)
**Editing carries the film.** Where Resnais's previous study of time and memory, *[Last Year at Marienbad](https://www.edgepedia.org/last-year-at-marienbad)* (1961), was a triumph for the cameraman, *Je t'aime, je t'aime* is a triumph for the editor: the critic Penelope Houston wrote that one has never been more aware of Resnais exploring time through timing, with matchless editing and an unfailing instinct for the duration of a shot.[2](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/je_taime_je_taime) • [9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/je_taime_je_taime) The device used for travel through time resembles a living, womb-shaped organism, and the protagonist leaves it by emerging into the sea's amniotic fluid.[2](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/je_taime_je_taime) Claude Rich, who appears on screen almost throughout, said in 1968 that he had never embodied a character so complete and fascinating, a man who can see himself in every moment of his life, the strong moments and the weak ones alike; he called the film "un film de sensations".[3](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/50886.html)
## Release and reception
The film received its French visa (no. 33489) on 12 April 1968 and was cleared for all audiences.[1](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/33489) It was selected In Competition at the 1968 Festival de Cannes, but the festival was disrupted amid the May 1968 events in France, and AlloCiné's account holds that the film thereby missed the recognition it deserved, sank into oblivion, and found more enthusiasm abroad than in France.[8](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/je-t-aime-je-t-aime/) • [6](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D2163.html) A contemporary review in *Le Monde* by Jean de Baroncelli called it a film of rare density, in which the science-fiction premise lets Resnais draw a psychoanalytic portrait of a character outside ordinary logic and chronology, arriving at a "different" realism.[14](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1968/04/29/je-t-aime-je-t-aime_2489833_1819218.html)
The film was a commercial failure that marked the start of a lean period for Resnais, who between 1964 and 1976 completed only three features: *La Guerre est finie*, *Je t'aime je t'aime*, and *Stavisky*.[15](https://www.applis.univ-tours.fr/theses/2014/remi.lecompte_4576.pdf) • [13](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/alain-resnais/la-guerre-est-finie-1966-je-taime-je-taime-1968-stavisky-1974/E4F88406D64E2946AF8D953198854A04) It was re-released in French cinemas on 5 March 2003, and later restoration-era releases brought it back to circulation, including a 35mm run at Cornell Cinema billed as part of a "Restorations & Rediscoveries" series.[6](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D2163.html) • [10](https://cinema.cornell.edu/je-taime-je-taime)
## Legacy
Cornell Cinema's program notes describe the film as a major influence on [Michel Gondry](https://www.edgepedia.org/michel-gondry)'s *Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind* (2004), which likewise uses a science-fiction device to fragment the memory of a failed relationship.[10](https://cinema.cornell.edu/je-taime-je-taime) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 90% Tomatometer from 10 critics and an 80% audience score from more than 500 ratings.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/je_taime_je_taime) The British Board of Film Classification describes it as a French-language science-fiction drama in which a man becomes lost in his own memories during a time travel experiment, and flags its depiction of a suicide attempt.[16](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/je-taime-je-taime-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0yodqxmzq)
## References
1. [Je t'aime je t'aime, visa no. 33489, CNC Visas et Classification](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/33489)
2. [Je t'aime, je t'aime, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/je_taime_je_taime)
3. [Je t'aime, je t'aime (Alain Resnais, 1968), La Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/50886.html)
4. [Je t'aime, je t'aime, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/401149/)
5. [Notice de titre conventionnel "Je t'aime, je t'aime (film)", Bibliothèque nationale de France](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark%3A/12148/cb170611466)
6. [Je t'aime, je t'aime (1968), AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D2163.html)
7. [Je t'aime, je t'aime, Larousse, Dictionnaire mondial des films](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Je_taime_je_taime/5665)
8. [Je t'aime, je t'aime, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/je-t-aime-je-t-aime/)
9. [I Love You, I Love You, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/je_taime_je_taime)
10. [Je t'aime, je t'aime, Cornell Cinema](https://cinema.cornell.edu/je-taime-je-taime)
11. [Je T'Aime, Je T'Aime, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/je-taime-je-taime)
12. [Analysis of the screenplay of Je t'aime, je t'aime, University of Tartu thesis](https://dspace.ut.ee/bitstreams/f7a1a74e-8031-46de-aa84-5d24b80496ab/download)
13. [La Guerre est finie (1966), Je t'aime je t'aime (1968), Stavisky (1974), Cambridge University Press](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/alain-resnais/la-guerre-est-finie-1966-je-taime-je-taime-1968-stavisky-1974/E4F88406D64E2946AF8D953198854A04)
14. ["Je t'aime, je t'aime", Le Monde, 29 April 1968](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1968/04/29/je-t-aime-je-t-aime_2489833_1819218.html)
15. [Thèse, Université de Tours, on Resnais](https://www.applis.univ-tours.fr/theses/2014/remi.lecompte_4576.pdf)
16. [Je T'aime Je T'aime, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/je-taime-je-taime-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0yodqxmzq)
17. [Je T Aime Je T Aime 2, festival-cannes.com](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/je-t-aime-je-t-aime-2/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works) › Science fiction and fantasy films before 1970*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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