When The Woolly Yarmouth was an impressionable teen, this witty little number stumbled into his lap and made him laugh, cough, then laugh again. Je t’aime John Wayne is a very funny, cool, technically sophisticated and well read homage to the French new wave – or Nouvelle Vague as both the character and narrator would exclaim.
Directed by Toby MacDonald, it could teach this generation, with their HD phones, cheap i-movie editing packages, and wealth of televised offerings, a thing or two about making the shorter form of cinema with clear influences and a fruit-bowlsful of flair.
On 54 seconds a couple is seen kissing. As this rather passionate (and quite European) kiss continues, you will realise the male character is played by none other than Kris Marshall of My Family and Love Actually fame. He’s brilliant in this, and his introduction in this film is largely shot, cut and delivered in the style of a Goddard/Belmondo collaboration (which is largely influenced by anything Bogart) and is so magnetic it inspired a FCUK ad campaign (That’s a whole lot of influencing!). The kiss introduces us to this character – whose struggles in love punctuate the film – but also introduces us to the style of the piece; the most important ‘character’ in the film.
An homage to a film, film-maker or genre can just come across as copying, and in doing so looks a pretty shoddy effort. Now, MacDonald and his merry band didn’t need to transcend or subvert the masters (Goddard as mentioned, Truffaut et al) to end up with something truly special – this didn’t need to be an Altman or Scorsese. If the team (director, actors, DoP, editor) know of their blatant copying and make this self-awareness so blatant, the result may be a masterstroke. This was their masterstroke; ultimately this is a comic depiction of the genre with a pinch of old-school cool that made the period in French film so bloody good.
The French is replaced by British with a French accent, the masterful smoking of ‘Lucky Strike’ is replaced by a sycophantic obsession with the brand, and the troublesome police replaced by a very annoyed younger sister, and a concerned answer phone message from mother.
This was shot in 2000, yet London has a 1970s glamour about it all of a sudden. The kids even look cheeky again, not scary and hooded. This film was not intended to be dissected frame by frame, hence its shallow yet very successful handling of a genre with 1000s of books written about it. Everything is here: the girl, the (fake) gun (The two things you needed to make a film according to J-L G), the jump cuts, the jazz, the monochrome, the swagger, the suits…the list goes on.
Just watch the thing. It shows current and exciting film-making that doesn’t over-think itself. And this was 10 years ago. A place in cinematic history it might not have, but its potential influence on young directors with ideas and a camera phone is too obvious, exciting and important to ignore.
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