Jacques Rivette

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vertovfan · #76 Post by **vertovfan** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 8:06 am

from France

from Japan

I assume no English subs though, and they seem to be out of print...

Gregory · #77 Post by **Gregory** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:20 am

It was released on VHS in the US by Interama Video Classics and later by Kino.

cinemartin · #78 Post by **cinemartin** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:15 pm

At the Rivette retro in Queens, they say they have a new 35mm print of Out 1: Spectre. Who would make a new 35 blow up of a 4 1/2 hour 16mm film? I'm wondering if someone wants to release it. Although, I've been wrong too many times before.

fred · #79 Post by **fred** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 6:09 pm

It also says that the new print is "imported", presumably from the UK or France. It was probably struck by an archive. Also, not all the information on their website is accurate. The "imported" print of Duelle was actually the same faded print which is on deposit at UCLA

cinemartin · #80 Post by **cinemartin** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 3:58 am

Yes, and the "Joan The Maid" shown today was the complete 5 hour 40 minute version. I believe they had to cancel the screening of La Belle Noiseuse planned for after it.

tavernier · #81 Post by **tavernier** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:03 am

cinemartin wrote:Yes, and the "Joan The Maid" shown today was the complete 5 hour 40 minute version. I believe they had to cancel the screening of La Belle Noiseuse planned for after it.

That's amazing that a place like Moving Image didn't know what version of a film they were getting for their big retrospective....they were listing it as 237 mins. total, which is why I didn't bother to plan my whole day around going to see it.

Damn those morons!

BTW, cinemartin, were you at "Joan" today? How was it, in all its glory?

cinemartin · #82 Post by **cinemartin** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:10 am

It was tremendous. I almost did what you did, but at the last second decided to go. I have the complete version, but it's fullscreen and without subtitles. By the time the first half was over, it had been playing for 2 hours and 40 minutes. I was hoping they screwed up the time, but like you I couldn't believe it. I have avoided the edited version forever, and finally broke down to see it today. Come to find out, somebody up there likes me.

It's a severe injustice that this film isn't available in a great transfer and complete.

tavernier · #83 Post by **tavernier** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:16 am

cinemartin wrote:It was tremendous. I almost did what you did, but at the last second decided to go. I have the complete version, but it's fullscreen and without subtitles. By the time the first half was over, it had been playing for 2 hours and 40 minutes. I was hoping they screwed up the time, but like you I couldn't believe it. I have avoided the edited version forever, and finally broke down to see it today. Come to find out, somebody up there likes me.

It's a severe injustice that this film isn't available in a great transfer and complete.

Figures....and of course that was the lone showing. Curses!

Oh well, at least I got to see the Giants choke big time against the Titans!

cinemartin · #84 Post by **cinemartin** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:22 am

At least there's another Giants hater and Tennessee fan on this board. But I think that's a discussion for another thread.

tavernier · #85 Post by **tavernier** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:56 am

cinemartin wrote:At least there's another Giants hater and Tennessee fan on this board. But I think that's a discussion for another thread.

Not a Titans fan, just a Giants hater!

Brian Oblivious · #86 Post by **Brian Oblivious** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:22 am

On December 10th it's scheduled to play in Berkeley, California in two parts. They say it's the full 5 and 2/3 hour version. I'm supposed to work that day though. grrrr.

fred · #87 Post by **fred** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:43 am

tavernier wrote:That's amazing that a place like Moving Image didn't know what version of a film they were getting for their big retrospective....they were listing it as 237 mins. total, which is why I didn't bother to plan my whole day around going to see it.

Damn those morons!

Damn those morons indeed, especially since I emailed them a week and a half ago to clarify this very point. They never responded.

chaddoli · #88 Post by **chaddoli** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:21 pm

they are showing both long and short versions of out 1

Barmy · #89 Post by **Barmy** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:11 am

Somehow I thought it was very Rivettien that MMI didn't know which print of Joan they were screening.

Separately, I have spot checked the Duelle/Noroit DVD. Image quality is fine, particularly on Noroit. Sound quality is OK. However, the Noroit DVD runs 128 minutes vs. the official 145 minute running time. Why anyone would cut 10 minutes from one of Rivette's shorter films is beyond me.

Tommaso · #90 Post by **Tommaso** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 10:07 am

Thanks Barmy, you just saved me 20 Euros or so. This is unbelievable. I have the full cut on VHS from TV, and it is completely perfect the way it is. Let's pray that someone like the BFI will do something about it. "Noroit" is one of Rivette's weirdest, most magical films, and not worse than "Celine" in my view.

Michael Kerpan · #91 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 2:12 pm

Tommaso wrote:Thanks Barmy, you just saved me 20 Euros or so. This is unbelievable. I have the full cut on VHS from TV, and it is completely perfect the way it is. Let's pray that someone like the BFI will do something about it. "Noroit" is one of Rivette's weirdest, most magical films, and not worse than "Celine" in my view.

Well -- I only have an ancient, bad looking, German-subbed TV broadcast of Noroit -- and have never seen Duelle at all -- so the set is still a must for me. ;~}

Tommaso · #92 Post by **Tommaso** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 2:30 pm

"Duelle" is very great, too. It's one of his most stylish films, more playful and less over-intellectual than some of his earlier works. I always think there is a distinctly Cocteauish quality to it, if only contentwise, the meeting with some undefined 'metaphysical' world (and glorious dominant women...).
It seems you have the same TV broadcast of "Noroit" that I have, and I agree. It looks horrible, and I was really looking forward to this DVD edition, but it seems I must stick to the tape for a while.

cinemartin · #93 Post by **cinemartin** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 3:01 pm

Did you watch all of Noroit to see what was cut? I ask this because I've seen the film shown a couple times and there is always a discrepancy regarding the time (the time listed in the program; the film always ran about 145 min). I also received my copy, I will watch to try and determine what was cut.

David Ehrenstein · Tue Nov 28, 2006 3:29 pm

Duelle and Noroit were two panels in what was planned as a four-film series first called Les Filles du Feu and then Scenes de la vie parallel. All were to involve what Rivette called "a non-existent myth" of a battle between Sun and Moon Goddesses for a magic diamond called "the fairy godmother." The diamond enable morals to become immortal and vice versa. Duelle spells this plot out clearly. In Noroit the goddess battle doesn't kick in until the last quarter. Each panel was to be equipped with an alternate text, quoted by the actors. In Duelle it was Cocteau's verse play The Knights of the Roundtable. In Noroit it was Tourneur's The Revenger's Tragedy. Rivette shot three days of what was to have been the third panel L'Histoire de Marie et Julien starring Albert Finney and Leslie Caron. Then he had a nervous breakdown and the whole thing was shut down. Recovring he made Merry Go Round -- which contaisn aspects of the series but isn't part of it. The planed fourth panel was to have been a musical, but when the project went south it had yet to be concieved. I suspect Haut/Bas/Fragile, the musical Rivette DID make, represents what it might have been like. He of course went on to make Marie et Julien later, substituting "ghosts" for goddesses and Emmauelle Beart and Jerzy Radzilowicz for Caron and Finney.

Duelle is my favorite Rivette. He screened The Seventh Victim for the entire cast before the shooting. The film itself is a kind of heightened Lewton with all the action seeming to take place just before dawn in a curiously underpopulated Paris. The music, played live in the movie, is a piano improvisation by Jean Weiner who in his youth manned the keyboard at "Le Boeuf sur le toit."

For Noroit he screened the cast Moonfleet.

Barmy · #95 Post by **Barmy** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 4:27 pm

My DVD player indicated a running time for Noroit of 128 minutes, so I have to assume something was cut. I just saw this at MMI and don't really have the inclination to watch the whole thing again to verify that it has been cut. It really is hard to believe that cuts were made--maybe they left out a reel.

Michael Kerpan · #96 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 4:32 pm

Can you figure out the timings for each of the VOB files? I recently got a DVD of a Chinese film that actually contained the complete film, but which inexlicably left out 13 minutes of material (included on the disc) during playback.

Barmy · #97 Post by **Barmy** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 4:44 pm

I don't have the technology for that--I'm pretty low-tech. As indicated above, cinemartin has the DVD as well and plans to watch it all the way through. The DVD box itself also says 128 minutes, so I am somewhat pessimistic.

David Ehrenstein · Tue Nov 28, 2006 7:54 pm

Noroit is just shy of three hours.

Michael Kerpan · #99 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 8:20 pm

If one googles Noroit, one finds that all sorts of sources list this at either 2 hours or 129 minutes. The 140+ minute length seems to come up less often.

I'll check Frappat's book and the Vienna retrospective booklets this evening.

Barmy · #100 Post by **Barmy** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 9:50 pm

Imdb and the MoMI program have 145 minutes.

I just saw it at MoMI the weekend before last and vaguely remember getting out sooner than I expected.

Again, I would be very surprised if 2 versions, just 10-15 minutes apart, existed. So now I'm thinking that the DVD is the full version.

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Jacques Rivette