Je t'aime John Wayne

Review by Giovanni Varazzani

Je t’aime John Wayne was released on Friday 13th July 2000. This short movie is written by writer Luke Ponte and directed by Toby MacDonald.
The story is about an English middle class guy living in London, where he models himself like a French man with gangster habits. The idea comes from the 1960’s film “Breathless” with French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, who thought to be an American. The film has also influence from “Julie and Jim” and the “400 Blows”.
The film follows the 1960’s French new wave cinema, which has influence from the Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. The wave movement basically make a radical experiment with editing, visual style and narrative, part of a general break with the conservative paradigm. So the audience recognize the style from the black and white colours, the revolutionary (in the 1960) jump cut and the different narrative that make a film serious at the first impact, but it has a kind of comedy that make the audience smile and dream trough the dreams of the main character. A funny scene is when Kris Marshall, alias Belmondo, smokes a cigarette while he is brushing his teeth.
Another point of wave cinema is the low budget to make the film. For “Je t’aime John Wayne” MacDonald and Ponte raised about £15.000, and all the production was about four months.
Thinking about the little detail, I identify it in the dream present in any person, that wish to have a perfect lifestyle, in case of this film it has been seen through an adult eyes, thus to explain that not only kids but adults too can dream.
It also important to mention that this film won several awards, like the TCM short film competition at the London film festival. It also has been the only British film selected for the Cannes 2001 Director’s fortnight.