- The debut French New Wave auteur Jacques Rivette—a leisurely-paced, but fascinating paranoia-infused opaque mystery
- 142 minutes for a debut- indeed, even early, Rivette is the long-form voice from the New Wave
- A strong opening as we travel through Paris with the camera and fly in through the window to our unlikely (and uknowning) detective Anne- played by Betty Schneider
- A bizarre score, part guitar and part jazzy percussion
- secrecy, conspiracy, “we’re a cog in a vast machine” in the text and Lang’s Metropolis in the text, Rivette uses Parisian architecture in the shadows to effect– but this is a far cry from Antonioni’s Blow-Up or La Notte
Rivette uses Parisian architecture in the shadows to effect– but this is a far cry from Antonioni’s Blow-Up or La Notte
- Wondrously weird character Philip Kaufman (a Kafka character if I’ve ever seen one, reminded me of Pesci in JFK)- the hotel room with strange wallpaper and creepy drawings
Wondrously weird character Philip Kaufman (a Kafka character if I’ve ever seen one, reminded me of Pesci in JFK)- the hotel room with strange wallpaper and creepy drawings
- Suicide, politics, innuendo
Suicide, murder, politics, innuendo
- Recommend but not in the top 10 of 1961
Will Rivette be appearing on the directors list soon? For me he is a top 10 all-time Director, and one of the single greatest creative minds the medium has ever known, although his work is not for everyone, so can understand the low placement on your list, great read as always, keep the reviews coming!
@Ben Morley– thanks for the comment and visiting the site. Top 10 seems …. well…. lofty. But until this week I had only seen two Rivette films so it’s hard for me to say. They’re just difficult films to find. I will be watching a few more as part of this study. So, my placement of Rivette on this list (or not on the list rather) is mostly because of the unavailability of his work. I’m not going to fake it if I haven’t seen it.
@Ben Morley– Who are the others you’d have in the top 10?
Hi, thanks a lot for responding, I accept that my top 10 is far from an objective representation, and is far more tailored to my personal tastes and criteria (camera work, world-building, etc). In no particular order:
Ingmar Bergman
Michelangelo Antonioni
Jean Renoir
David Lynch
Robert Altman
Robert Bresson
Stanley Kubrick
Kenji Mizoguchi
Andrei Tarkovsky
Jacques Rivette
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