Jacques Rivette

[cinemartin]

That's why I'm afraid they'll spin out of control on a long improvised film like Out 1.

[fred]

The transfers of both "L'amour par terre" and "Hurlevent" on the French 8-Disc-Set are framed 16:9 there (1.78, that is), and these are transfers personally overseen by the respective cinematographers and probably Rivette himself. So they seem to have accepted a slightly matted framing (if indeed they were originally 1.66) in these cases.

The Image disc of "Hurlevent" is 1.78:1 (non-anamorphic, of course).

Well I hate to be picayune about this, but the difference between 1.78 and 1.85 (it may have even been slightly tighter in actuality) in this case was substantive. At the very least it was occassionally lopping off the tops of heads where they clearly aren't on the dvds, but I think it generally unbalanced the compositions in very unfavorable ways. Again, this was actually clear from the title cards, even before there were images on the screen.

The soft-titles were okay. When they're being cued manually, you have to expect them to be slightly delayed. It wasn't that distracting. I wouldn't worry too much about Out 1. First of all, they rehearsed it in a press screening, and secondly, it's divided into episodes, so it will be recued periodically, preventing it from getting too far out of control.

[Barmy]

I need to stop reading this board as people keep pointing out things I don't even notice or worry about. It would be more interesting to read what people think about the films rather than the aspect ratios or running times.

Too bad they couldn't get the full-length version of "Love on the Ground". C'est la vie.

[Tommaso]

Okay, Barmy, I agree although I think both DVD quality and the film itself are important topics.
I remember "Hurlevent" somewhat imperfectly at the moment, but I recall that when I first watched it I was amazed how GOOD it was, after having read some dismissals of the film beforehand. I think he perfectly captured the spirit of Emily Bronte's novel without going into any sort of 'outward' drama and effects (quite the opposite of Wyler's classic version with Laurence Olivier). I found it amazing how he was able to actually 'move' his characters through the frame as if he was directing theatre (I guess he learned that from Renoir's "Regle du Jeu", but still it's quite amazing). Great use of colour, too. I think the film is a good starting point for discovering late Rivette. It's easier than 'L"amour par terre", and amazingly short by his standards.

[Michael Kerpan]

I remember "Hurlevent" somewhat imperfectly at the moment, but I recall that when I first watched it I was amazed how GOOD it was, after having read some dismissals of the film beforehand. I think he perfectly captured the spirit of Emily Bronte's novel without going into any sort of 'outward' drama and effects (quite the opposite of Wyler's classic version with Laurence Olivier). I found it amazing how he was able to actually 'move' his characters through the frame as if he was directing theatre (I guess he learned that from Renoir's "Regle du Jeu", but still it's quite amazing). Great use of colour, too. I think the film is a good starting point for discovering late Rivette. It's easier than 'L"amour par terre", and amazingly short by his standards.

At first, I was cool to this film. But even then, I thought it was one of his most visually gorgeous films. Eventually, I realized that it was Bronte's story that I actually disliked. Paradoxically (or not), this made the film more appealing on subsequent viewings.

I love" L'amour par terre" -- but really feel that my French comprehensiuon skills are not yet strong enough to fully appreciate this in unsubbed form (unlike Pont du Nord -- where thr dialog is sparser -- and mostly easier to keep up with).

[Tommaso]

My problem, too. Incidentally I think, however, that Rivette's films are easier to understand for me languagewise as most other French films. I guess it must have something to do with the fact that he uses theatre-trained actors mostly. They all speak very clear and distinct which helps a lot. Still I regret very much that there are no subs on the arte-8discer.

[David Ehrenstein]

Hurlevent is one of my very favorite Rivettes. It's a teriffic rendition of Wuthering Heights and introduces both Fabienne Babe and Lucas Belvaux. Rivette has said the film's visual style was inspired by the paintings of Balthus.

The fact that the action is set between the wars is also interesting.

[Michael Kerpan]

Hurlevent is one of my very favorite Rivettes. I

Well, it depends on just how many films there are on one's list of "favorite Rivettes". ;~}

Damn -- FNAC just canceled my Noroit/Duelle order -- claiming the DVD is "indisponsible"! But the website show it as avaiable within 24 hours -- at a higher price! I think I got roped.

[Tommaso]

Actually, apart from "la Religieuse" and "L'amour fou" (the latter I haven't been able to see, sniff), actually all of his films are among my favourite Rivettes....

[David Ehrenstein]

L'Amour Fou is amazing. At over four hours it was quite the workout in 1968. But todya it can be seen as a kind of sitting-up exercise for Out 1.

It's a film a clef about Godar'd break-up with Anna Karina. They had locked themselves in their apartment for weeks. When friends finally broke down the door they discovered the couple a unruly state -- shell-shocked with the place a ruins. This is reproduced exactly in the climax of Rivette's film with Bulle Ogier and Jean-Pierre Kalfon locking themselevs in and going at it.

The film also represents Rivtte's engagement with the "real" and the "fictional" as he saw it in Jean Rouch (particularly La Pyramide Humaine.) He let Kalfon rehearse a production of Racine's Andromache and had a 16mm crew film the rehearsals documentary style. Meanwhile 35 mm was reserved for the "fiction." Kalfon starts his rehersal and his leading lady ove Ogier walks out. The bulk of the film cuts between the rehearsals for the production (which is never actually staged) and Ogier wandering about Paris. Rivette says his models for this section of the film were Marnie and Lilith.

There is exactly one passage of music in the film over a scene in which Kalfon walsk the streets making the decision to join Ogier in her dissolution. This is a precursor to Sandrine Bonnaire's train rides in Secret Defense.

[fred]

L'Amour Fou is amazing.

Absolutely. It's one of my five co-favorite Rivette films (with Pont du Nord, Merry-Go-Round, Hurlevent, and Secret Défense). It's also the most naturalistic Rivette film by a large margin, apparently something Rivette later grew to dislike about it and was already moving away from in Out 1.

[Barmy]

Oy, I had issues with Hurlevent. Most of the actors (other than the housekeeper) came across like Bressonian models, which doesn't work well with Rivette's style. He needs real actors. Fab. Babe in particular was boring and sexless as batshit. Why did he turn Emmanuelle Beart down for this part?

That being said, I thought the overall mise-en-scene was a much better treatment of this subject than that crappy Laurence Olivier film.

[fred]

I totally disagree. They're childlike, and so lack adult psychology, but it's not at all Bressonian and completely Rivettian. It's just that the meaning and the emotion in the film is carried more strongly (and gloriously) by the mise-en-scene than in any other Rivette film.

It's also not a film about sex, at least not in the way you seem to be implying, so I can't comprehend your objection to Babe. (And the less Emmanuelle Beart the better.)

[Barmy]

Hmm, they came across like awkward zombies to me. Not like teens in the throes of passion. I just did not find the film engaging, although I respected its austerity. There must be some reason why this is one of Rivette's least-loved films (I have lived in NYC since 1987 and to my knowledge it is the only Rivette other than Out One that has never been screened in NYC during that time).

P.S.: HATED the music--very obvious, and thus very un-Rivettian.

[David Ehrenstein]

Here's a new review of Out 1

[chaddoli]

L'Amour Fou completely blew me away, an epic masterpiece. SOMEONE needs to release this on dvd.

[tavernier]

(And the less Emmanuelle Beart the better.)

Uh...why?

[Barmy]

precisely

[orlik]

L'Amour Fou completely blew me away, an epic masterpiece. SOMEONE needs to release this on dvd.

I agree absolutely - I think Rivette's work from 1968-1974 represents one of the pinnacles, if not THE pinnacle, of the Nouvelle Vague in terms of both achievement and experiment. L'Amour Fou is one of the most emotionally draining films I've seen, though without being in any way melodramatic. The way Kalfon's character very slowly withdraws into a kind of catatonia-like state represents a kind of breakdown rarely seen in cinema. What's also impressive is the way Rivette combines an absolute, improvisational naturalism with the subtle use of repeated motifs (mirrors, drumming) and themes ('performance' in its various guises - explored even further of course in Out 1).

By the way, I've always wondered whether the title of L'Amour Fou was a reference to Andre Breton's novel and thus to Surrealism. One of the film's original reviewers suggested so, but I've never found any statement by Rivette himself to confirm this.

[cinemartin]

After watching L'amour Fou, I had a strange feeling that films can no longer be made. I felt that this film is all about manipulation in various forms (which is actually what the above review says about Out 1) and how that manipulation destroys everything, especially the person who is manipulating. I think this film has come the closest to destroying cinema than any I've ever seen. It seems Out 1 may go even further.

[orlik]

This is true, indeed Out 1 can also be seen as the other side of the same coin, insofar as it explores the failure of various kinds of collective endeavour (artistic, political) - furthermore, by its very form, the film constitutes the destruction of cinema as we normally understand it, though in a way that's extraordinarily compelling.

Fortunately, after the nihilism of these films, Celine and Julie Go Boating affirms the pleasures of making - and watching - movies. Celine and Julie spin their little yarn in a way that's collaborative and non-manipulative.

[Michael Kerpan]

Harvard Film Archive Schedule

[Michael Kerpan]

L'Amour Fou is one of the most emotionally draining films I've seen, though without being in any way melodramatic.

Harrowing -- is the term I'd use. ;~}

[fred]

(And the less Emmanuelle Beart the better.)

Uh...why?

She's totally devoid of interest as an actress, outside of her films with Rivette, and then only because every actor is interesting in a Rivette film. He used her perfectly in La Belle noiseuse, but I would have preferred that Marie and Julien had been made with Sandrine Bonnaire, who I believe was initially cast, but had to drop out.

[Tommaso]

She's totally devoid of interest as an actress, outside of her films with Rivette, and then only because every actor is interesting in a Rivette film. He used her perfectly in La Belle noiseuse, but I would have preferred that Marie and Julien had been made with Sandrine Bonnaire, who I believe was initially cast, but had to drop out.

Sorry, Fred, I have to disagree on this, although I too would not have had her in "Hurlevent". As you say above, the psychology in "Hurlevent", as in Bronte's "Wuthering Heights", is essentially if not childlike, then adolescent. That would imply that the sexuality is there, but it is still an energy not yet exploded (although already dominating the characters) or overly visible. Beart indeed would have been too 'heavy' in this respect, and Fabienne Babe does it really well. As always, Rivette picked exactly the right performer for the role.
But that's no reason to dismiss Beart in general. Apart from her knock-out performances in both "Noiseuse" and "Marie et Julien" (and I don't think Bonnaire would have done Marie any better, really), she was perfectly able to express this aspect in other films, too. The only reason to watch an otherwise dull film like Anne Fontaine's "Nathalie..." is precisely the tour-de-force performance Beart submits, making her character as a prostitute and the machinations she performs credible. And for this it is not enough to be an extremely good-looking femme fatale, but it needs excellent acting abilities, and I believe she has these.