After the immense Out 1, Rivette repeats with Juliet Berto in this fantasy and magic comedy, which is among the author's most valued films. But here it abandons the character of improvisation, although it continues to take advantage of the inventiveness of its actresses in the creation of the story and the elaboration of the dialogues.
Again the nods to Feuillade and Lewis Carroll, if possible more explicit, but also more superficial, than in Out 1. Again a film more than 3 hours long. Again the bizarr and absurd humour.
Personally I find it somewhat disappointing, especially in its second half, where the effervescent tone of the relationship between the two friends is lost, and the film seems to weigh heavily.
Celine and Julie are two girls who seem lost in a time loop that inevitably leads them to meet in a park: once it can start with Julie reading her magic book when Celine appears running and dropping her belongings one by one, and getting Julie to start chasing her; other times it can be the other way around. The film focuses on one of the repetitions of that loop, in which they invent their mysterious relationship with a haunted mansion, where a day more than 20 years ago, when a terrible crime took place, is repeated endlessly in a new time loop. . Or it may be that every time they meet they make up a story about that house they remember from their childhood.
Bulle Ogier, another regular at Rivette's movies, appears as one of the characters in that subplot at the mansion.
The film, as almost always in Rivette, has a certain whimsical and playful tone, much of a formal experiment, and although it seems to want to be faithful to its own rules, the truth is that those rules are so hidden that often there seems to be no rule. Al all.
This is the 1970s, the most experimental phase of Rivette's career, which can be hugely irritating or hugely satisfying, or both.
Again the nods to Feuillade and Lewis Carroll, if possible more explicit, but also more superficial, than in Out 1. Again a film more than 3 hours long. Again the bizarr and absurd humour.
Personally I find it somewhat disappointing, especially in its second half, where the effervescent tone of the relationship between the two friends is lost, and the film seems to weigh heavily.
Celine and Julie are two girls who seem lost in a time loop that inevitably leads them to meet in a park: once it can start with Julie reading her magic book when Celine appears running and dropping her belongings one by one, and getting Julie to start chasing her; other times it can be the other way around. The film focuses on one of the repetitions of that loop, in which they invent their mysterious relationship with a haunted mansion, where a day more than 20 years ago, when a terrible crime took place, is repeated endlessly in a new time loop. . Or it may be that every time they meet they make up a story about that house they remember from their childhood.
Bulle Ogier, another regular at Rivette's movies, appears as one of the characters in that subplot at the mansion.
The film, as almost always in Rivette, has a certain whimsical and playful tone, much of a formal experiment, and although it seems to want to be faithful to its own rules, the truth is that those rules are so hidden that often there seems to be no rule. Al all.
This is the 1970s, the most experimental phase of Rivette's career, which can be hugely irritating or hugely satisfying, or both.