Akerman's first feature is made up of three episodes, connected for the young protagonist (Akerman) as a process or journey, perhaps out of youth into adulthood. At first, she (“je”) is alone in a room, compulsively eating, writing about herself and reading this aloud to herself (and us, “tu”), rearranging the furniture and finally stripping it down to the essentials. She goes on the road and meets a young truck driver (“il”) who regales her with stories of his life and the routine of his work. Finally, she comes to the home of a former lover; there is an atmosphere of estrangement but the two women choose to make love rather than talk about it. Akerman allows each section of the film a different color tonality (in shades of black and white); the stationary camera and the long single-shot sequences create the sense of real time passing. Systematically avoiding any close shots, she effectively distances us from the intense experiences of her protagonist. “(A) direct and acute probe: food, sex and conversation made strange” (Jane Clark, National Film Theatre).