JE T'AIME MOI NON PLUS

From the opening shots of a garbage truck and a dead crow splattered across the windshield, we see a well-built driver with one arm lying on the body of another male. Krassky and Padovans relationship is soon threatened when Krassky finds himself attracted to Johnny, a slender young woman who he initially thought was a boy. Striving to be with Krassky in any way possible, Johnny realizes that the only way to be with him is to act as if she were a boy, to have sex as he and Padovan do. Padovan, driven to distraction and desperation, eventually threatens to take extreme measures against his new rival, the dead crow is indeed a bad omen. Birkin and Gainsbourg had already established themselves as not only major French artists «in the scene», but also provocateurs, as a couple willing to continually shake up the art world, but the media and most theatergoers were simply not yet ready in 1976 when the film was released. Although François Truffaut and a few other French film critics came to its defense, Je taime moi non plus was attacked as «immoral and scandalous». Even though the film reportedly only sold 150.000 tickets upon its release, it has slowly achieved cult status in the intervening years. (Chale Nafus)