2022 Blind Spot Series: Celine and Julie Go Boating

 

Directed by Jacques Rivette and written by Rivette, Juliet Berto, Dominique Labourier, Bulle Ogier, and Marie-France Pisier with additional dialogue by Eduardo de Gregorio and text based on original stories by Henry James, Celine et Julie von ten bateau (Celine and Julie Go Boating) is the story of a librarian who meets a magician as they embark on a series of adventures ranging from all sorts of worlds and stories including a murder-mystery. The film is a genre-bending tale that feature two women who embark on this adventure that takes them to places of fiction and other forms of reality as the titular characters are portrayed by Juliet Berto and Dominique Labourier respectively as Celine and Julie. Also starring Bulle Ogier, Marie-France Pisier, Barbet Schroeder, Nathalie Asnar, Marie-Therese Saussure, Philippe Clevenot, Jean Douchet, Adele Taffetas, Monique Clement, Jerome Richard, Michael Graham, and Jean-Marie Senia. Celine et Julie von ten bateau is a majestic and whimsical film from Jacques Rivette.

The film is the story of two women with a fascination for magic who meet as they embark on a series of adventures where they encounter a house as they would play the role of a maid in a murder mystery from the past. It is a film that doesn’t have much of a plot as its screenplay is loose in its presentation but also has these layers of stories within a story that includes this murder mystery from the past. The script does feature a lot of literary references in not just some of the works of Henry James but also Lewis Carroll and Marcel Proust in relation to the idea of alternate realities. The film begins with Julie reading a book on magic where she catches Celine running through a park leaving things as Julie would follow her as the two eventually meet and become friends with Celine moving in to Julie’s apartment. Julie is a librarian while Celine is a cabaret performer/magician as the two would know more about each other’s lives but also this home near a house where a childhood neighbor of Julie lived in. There on different days, they would separately encounter this story of two sisters who are in a love triangle with a man as Celine and Julie would play a maid on different occasions where a young girl is murdered.

Jacques Rivette’s direction is largely simple in its presentation as it doesn’t emphasize on anything stylish but rather shoot on actual locations as the film is largely set in Montmartre near Paris. Shot on the 1:37:1 aspect ratio, Rivette uses the format to play into the film’s simple presentation as there are some unique wide shots of the location as well as a few scenes in a room with one of the characters in the foreground and another in the background. There are also some incredible compositions that Rivette uses in the close-ups and medium shots as it play into the way Celine and Julie interact with one another but also in how they try to figure out this murder mystery in this old house where it’s opened at a specific time. There are also these moments in the film where whenever Celine or Julie leave that house. They are disoriented as they would get these flashes of what they had experienced while they would eat a piece of candy later on where they remember what they saw. The scenes inside the house showcase these two women in Camille (Bulle Ogier) and Sophie (Marie-France Pisier) who are sisters who are taking care of their niece Madlyn (Nathalie Asnar) while pursuing her father Olivier (Barbet Schroeder) on Madlyn’s first birthday since the death of her mother.

Rivette’s direction also play into individual pursuits of Celine and Julie with the former being a magician and the latter is a librarian as they would eventually switch roles with the former trying to deal with the latter’s childhood sweetheart and the latter filling in for the former in an audition. It adds to the film’s whimsical tone while also playing into how they uncover the mystery from this candy that they eat as they would take notes on what they remember. The film’s climax is about uncovering what really did happen but also play into this idea of what is real and what is fantasy as it is followed by an aftermath that blur the lines of all of that and more. Overall, Rivette crafts an intoxicating yet exhilarating film about two women who embark on a weird adventure involving a murder mystery from the past and other alternate universes.

Cinematographer Jacques Renard does excellent work with the film’s cinematography as its usage of natural lighting for many of the daytime exteriors as well as the usage of lights for some interior scenes in the day and night. Editor Nicole Lubtchansky does amazing work with the editing with its stylish usage of jump cuts to help blur the ideas of fantasy and reality. Costume designers Jean-Luc Berne, Pierre D’Alby, and Laurent Vicci do fantastic work with the costumes from the more conservative look of Julie to the more hippie-inspired look of Celine as well as the posh clothing of Camille and Sophie. The sound work of Paul Laine is superb for the way sound is presented in its natural setting including some of the music that is played on location. The film’s music by Jean-Marie Senia is wonderful as it is largely a cabaret piano-based piece that is performed for Celine’s stage performance.

The film’s incredible ensemble cast feature some notable small roles from composer Jean-Marie Senia as the piano player Cyrill, Jerome Richard and Michael Graham as a couple of men watching Julie’s audition, Adele Taffetas and Monique Clement as a couple of fellow performer friends of Celine, Anne Zamire as a co-worker of Julie at the library, Jean Douchet as Celine’s boss at the club, Philippe Clevenot as Julie’s childhood sweetheart Guilou, and Marie-Therese Saussere as an old neighbor of Julie in Poupie whom Julie asks about the house next door. Nathalie Asnar is fantastic as the young girl Madlyn who deals with her upcoming birthday but also unaware of the tension surrounding her family with Celine and Julie observing her. Barbet Schroeder is excellent as Madlyn’s father Olivier who is in love triangle with her aunts as he deals with being in love with two women but also trying to seduce the family maid who are played on different occasions by Celine and Julie.

Bulle Ogier and Marie-France Pisier are phenomenal in their respective roles as Camille and Sophie as two sisters who are watching over their niece but also vying for the affection of Olivier with Ogier being more out there as someone who is losing her mind while Pisier plays a woman with an immense fear for flowers. Finally, there’s the duo of Julie Berto and Dominique Labourier in spectacular performances in their respective roles of the titular characters in Celine and Julie. Berto provides a bit of sensuality in her work as a magician but also this exuberance in the way she is introduced into the film while Labourier is more reserved early on while also having a few quirks of her own. Together, the two women display an air of mischievousness in how they plot schemes but also play into the way they react to the other world they’re in as they are a major highlight of the film.

Celine et Julie von ten bateau is a magnificent film from Jacques Rivette that features tremendous leading performances from Julie Berto and Dominique Labourier. Along with its ensemble cast, colorful visuals, whimsical presentation, and its story of two women going into a moment in time that also involve alternate worlds. It is a film that is definitely offbeat in its presentation and premise yet it has a looseness that is engaging to watch as well as what two women would do to uncover this murder mystery but also themselves. In the end, Celine et Julie von ten bateau is an outstanding film from Jacques Rivette.

Jacques Rivette Films: Le Coup du berger - (Paris Belongs to Us) – (The Nun (1966 film)) – (L’amour fou) – (Out 1) – (Duelle) – (Noroit) – (Merry-Go Round (1981 film)) – (Le Pont du Nord) – (Love on the Ground) – (Hurlevent) – (Gang of Four (1989 film)) – (La Belle Noiseuse) – (Joan the Maid) – (Up, Down, Fragile) – (Lumiere and Company-“Une aventure de Ninon”) – (Secret Defense) – (Va savoir) – (The Story of Marie and Julien) – (The Duchess of Langeais) – (Around a Small Mountain)

© thevoid99 2022

More (1969 film)

Directed by Barbet Schroeder and screenplay by Schroeder and Paul Gegauff from a story by Schroeder, More is the story of a German boy and American girl who meet in Paris as they go on a trip to Ibiza to explore the world of the drug culture of the 1960s. The film is a look into youth culture of the late 1960s at a time where drugs and the idea of free love where the rage with two people caught up in this world. Starring Mimsy Farmer and Klaus Grunberg. More is a mesmerizing though flawed film from Barbet Schroeder.

The film follows a German student who hitchhikes to Paris where he meets an American girl and falls for her where he later follows her to the Spanish island of Ibiza where they engage in sex and drugs. That is pretty much the premise of the film provided by Barbet Schroeder and Paul Gegauff with dialogue co-written by Mimsy Farmer, Eugene Archer, and Paul Gardner as it doesn’t really do much to flesh out the premise even more. Especially as it explore the highs and lows of the 1960s counterculture with much of the latter is prevalent for the film’s second half. The character of Stefan (Klaus Grunberg) is a student that is interested in adventure and smoking dope but not wanting to do hard drugs. When he meets Estelle (Mimsy Farmer) as she is a woman that is the party as she goes to Ibiza to live in a villa with Stefan though she is connected to a former Nazi named Dr. Wolf (Heinz Engelmann) whom she has a relationship with.

Schroeder’s direction is definitely stylish as it is shot on location in Paris and Ibiza as owes a lot to many of the visual aesthetics of the French New Wave with its usage of hand-held cameras. The usage of close-ups and medium shots would play into the interaction of the characters while there are also some wide shots to showcase the scope of the locations including many of the rocky beaches of Ibiza. Notably as those scenes on the beaches showcase Stefan and Estelle engage in nude sunbathing near their villa where they spend time having sex, cooking, or doing drugs as it would later devolve into hard drugs such as heroin. The third act is where things become grimy with Stefan getting a taste of the drug as he becomes addicted where the film definitely changes it tone into something darker as it relates to what was happening in the 1960s. Much of the film is told from Stefan’s perspective until the third act as it is told from the perspective of his friend Charlie (Michel Chanderli) who warned Stefan about Estelle and her dependency on drugs. Overall, Schroeder crafts a visually-entrancing but underwhelming film about two lovers embarking on the many ideas of the late 1960s.

Cinematographer Nestor Almendros does brilliant work with the film’s cinematography from the usage of natural lighting for many of the film’s daytime exterior scenes in Ibiza as well as its more low-key look for the scenes in Paris as well as the usage of available and natural lighting for some of the scenes at night. Editors Denise de Casabianca and Rita Roland do nice work with the editing as it has elements of jump-cuts to play into some of the drug trips as well as some of the livelier moments in the film. Art directors Nestor Almendros and Fran Lewis do fantastic work with the look of the villa as well as a bar that Stefan works at including some of the places he goes to in Paris. The sound work of Jack Jullian and Robert Pouret is terrific for its natural approach to the sound in the way the cafes and some of the bars that the characters go to including how music sounds at a party. The film’s music by Pink Floyd as it is one of the film’s highlights for its mixture of psychedelic rock, space-rock, blues, tribal music, and other kinds of experimental music as it include a few instrumentals in the mix as it is one of the band’s more overlooked recordings during their early years in the late 1960s.

The film’s superb cast include some notable small roles from Georges Montant as a drug dealer, Louise Wink as a friend of Estelle in Cathy, famed photography Henry Wolf as himself in a cameo in Paris, Michel Chanderli as Stefan’s Parisian friend Charlie who is a thief as he knows Estelle and isn’t fond of her, and Heinz Engelmann as Dr. Ernesto Wolf as a former Nazi living in Ibiza who has a relationship with Estelle as he is also a part-time dealer. Finally, there’s the duo of Mimsy Farmer and Klaus Grunberg in stellar performances in their respective roles as Estelle and Stefan with Farmer being this vivacious woman who is also very destructive in her drug use while Grunberg is more restrained as he becomes concerned only to be consumed by the world of drugs.

More is a solid though flawed film from Barbet Schroeder. Despite its gorgeous visuals by Nestor Almendros, a riveting soundtrack by Pink Floyd, and some whimsical moments in the film. It’s a film that lacks a strong story to really support its visuals and ideas while it often acts as a product of its time. In the end, More is a terrific film from Barbet Schroeder.

Barbet Schroeder Films: (La Vallee) – (General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait) – (Maitresse) – (Koko: A Talking Gorilla) – (Tricheurs) – (The Charles Bukowski Tapes) – (Barfly) – (Reversal of Fortune) – (Single White Female) – (Kiss of Death) – (Before and After) – (Desperate Measures) – (Our Lady of the Assassins) – (Murder by Numbers) – (Terror’s Advocate) – (Inju: The Beast in the Shadow) – (Amnesia)

© thevoid99 2018

The Bakery Girl of Monceau

Written and directed by Eric Rohmer, The Bakery Girl of Monceau is the story of a law student who finds himself falling for a young woman working in a Parisian bakery as he was supposed to meet another woman. The film is the first part of a series of films relating to morality entitled Six Moral Tales as it plays into a man deciding about what to do as he is caught between two women. Starring Barbet Schroeder, Claudine Soubrier, and Michele Girardon. The Bakery Girl of Monceau is a fantastic short film from Eric Rohmer.

The film revolves a law student who has been trying to get the attention of a woman he had seen pass by him as an attempt to meet her for a date has him meeting a young woman working at a bakery that he falls for. It’s a simple 23-minute short film that takes a premise of this young man (Barbet Schroeder) who is supposed to meet this woman on a date yet he keeps coming to this bakery to wait as he was hungry as he is smitten by this young woman working at a bakery named Jacqueline (Claudine Soubrier). The film is told from the man’s perspective but from a different voice that is narrated by Bertrand Tavernier which plays into this man’s thoughts and the moral implication he’s in over which girl he wants to take.

Eric Rohmer’s direction is quite simple as it is shot on location in the Monceau section of Paris where Rohmer aims for that cinema verite style of shooting on exact locations with something that feels loose and real. There aren’t a lot of close-ups nor any music score to accompany the film other than what is played on location. Instead, Rohmer keeps things simple to capture a man dealing with his situation as Rohmer’s usage of medium shots and grainy 16mm film through the black-and-white photography of Bruno Barbey and Jean-Michel Meurice add something that feels free in the way Rohmer sets up scenes including the moments the man would have with Jacqueline. Co-editing with Jackie Raynal, Rohmer does bring in a sense of style through its jump-cuts as well as in some rhythmic cuts to play into the man’s dichotomy about which woman he should be with. Overall, Rohmer creates an engaging yet heartfelt film about a man who falls in love with a young woman on a day he was supposed to go out with another woman.

The film’s cast includes some notable small roles from Fred Junk as the young’s man’s friend Schmidt and Michele Girardon as the woman Sylvie whom the young man was supposed to meet on their date. Claudine Soubrier is amazing as Jacqueline as this young woman who intrigues the young man as she is someone with just simple ideas about things in the world. Finally, there’s Barbet Schroeder in an excellent performance as the young man who copes with the situation he is in as he tries to make sense of what he is going through while eating numerous pastries as it’s a performance with some charm and wit as it plays into his character’s struggles.

The Bakery Girl of Monceau is an exquisitely enchanting film from Eric Rohmer. It’s not just a witty short film but also one that plays into a man finding himself in the middle of a very complicated situation. In the end, The Bakery Girl of Monceau is a delightful film from Eric Rohmer.

Eric Rohmer Films: (The Sign of Leo) - Suzanne‘s Career - (Paris vu par-Place de l‘Etoile) - La Collectionneuse - My Night at Maud’s - Claire’s Knee - Love in the Afternoon (1972 film) - (L’enfance d’une ville) - (The Marquis of O) - (Perceval le Gallois) - (Catherine de Heilbronn) - (The Aviator’s Wife) - (Le Beau Mariage) - Pauline at the Beach - (Full Moon of Paris) - The Green Ray - (Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle) - (Boyfriends and Girlfriends) - (Les Jeux de societe) - (A Tale of Springtime) - (A Tale of Winter) - (L’Arbre, le maire et la mediatheque) - (Le trio en mi bemol) - (Les Rendez-vous de Paris) - (Summer’s Tale) - (Autumn Tale) - (The Lady and the Duke) - (Triple Agent) - (Romance of Astrea and Celadon)

© thevoid99 2015

Les Carabiniers

Based on the play I Caribinieri by Benjamino Joppolo, Les Carabiniers (The Carabineers) is the story of two farmers who are recruited to go to war as they write their exploits to their wives. Directed by Jean-Luc Godard and screenplay by Godard and Jean Gruault with contributions from Roberto Rossellini, the film is an exploration into the fallacy of war and the false promises it brings to its men. Starring Marino Mase, Albert Juross, Catherine Ribeiro, and Genevieve Galea. Les Carabiniers is a dark yet whimsical war film from Jean-Luc Godard.

The film is essentially the story about these two men named Ulysses (Marino Mase) and Michelangelo (Albert Juross) who are met by soldiers who tells them that their king wants them to go to war with promises of riches and such. At war, they would have many strange encounters as they write their exploits to their respective wives in Venus (Catherine Ribeiro) and Cleopatra (Genevieve Galea) who are waiting for these riches. Once they return from war, the men would present their wives with a taste of what they could get only for everyone to realize the fallacy that is war.

The screenplay explores the idea of war where these two men from very rural backgrounds are fooled into the idea of serving their king with these false promises. Though the men don’t encounter the horrors of war from their own perspective, what they do in war would really show how naïve they by giving in to these false promises where they will kill anyone for the sake of riches. Even innocent people or those who claim to be allies as it reveals in the third act that everything they fought for really comes down to nothing.

Jean-Luc Godard’s direction is very stylish in the way he presents the film as he does a lot of his shooting on locations where it seems like a war is actually happening. With the use of sound effects and stock footage, Godard creates a film where he plays off the idea that he’s making a low-budget war film that is shot in the streets and in the fields around France. With scenes that are played with a sense of dark humor that includes a very grim execution scene, Godard definitely has something to say in the idea of war. With some stylish close-ups, zany compositions, and other camera tricks, Godard definitely aims to create a film that is a farce on war. Overall, Godard creates a very engaging yet provocative film about the fallacy of war.

Cinematographer Raoul Coutard does excellent work with the film‘s black-and-white photography to play out the idea of war with some gorgeous exterior shots in the film‘s various locations. Editors Agnes Guillemot and Lila Lakshmanan do brilliant work with the editing by utilizing jump-cuts and other stylistic cuts to play out the sense of whimsy and dark humor. Production designer Jean-Jacques Fabre does terrific work with the minimal set pieces such as the home the four central characters live in. The sound work of Jacques Maumont and Hortion is incredible for the atmosphere that is created from the use of sound effects to create a tense feel for some of the film‘s war scenes. The film’s music by Philippe Arthuys is wonderful for its whimsical charm from the use of organ-driven music to the sound of drum cadences to play out the idea of war.

The film’s small but superb ensemble cast includes appearances from Barbet Schroeder as a car salesman and Odile Geoffroy as a Communist girl. Catherine Ribeiro and Genevieve Galea are wonderful as the wives of the two men who are both hoping for riches as they’re unaware of the charade that’s being played around them. Finally, there’s Marino Mase and Albert Juross in marvelous performance as the two farmers who join the war as they each bring an energetic approach to their characters as well as a complexity to their naiveté.

Les Carabiniers is an extraordinary yet compelling film from Jean-Luc Godard. While it’s a film that doesn’t provide any original insight into the idea of war, it does manage to have something to say as it is presented with a sense of humor. It’s also a very engaging film for the way Godard creates a war film by shooting it on actual locations as if he’s making a war film in the middle of city. In the end, Les Carabiniers is a captivating film from Jean-Luc Godard.

Jean-Luc Godard Films: All the Boys Are Called Patrick - Charlotte et son Jules - Breathless - The Little Soldier - A Woman is a Woman - My Life to Live - Contempt - Band of Outsiders - A Married Woman - Alphaville - Pierrot Le Fou - Masculine Feminine - Made in U.S.A. - Two or Three Things I Know About Her - La Chinoise - Weekend - One Plus One (Sympathy for the Devil) - (Joy of Learning) - (British Sounds) - Tout va Bien - (Letter to Jane) - (One A.M.) - (Number Two) - (Here and Elsewhere) - (Every Man for Himself) - (Passion) - (First Name: Carmen) - Hail, Mary - (Soft and Hard) - (Detective) - (King Lear (1987 film)) - (Keep Your Right Up) - (Nouvelle Vague) - (Allemagne 90 neuf zero) - (JLG/JLG - Self-Portrait in December) - For Ever Mozart - (Histoire(s) de Cinema) - (In Praise of Love) - (Notre musique) - (Film Socialisme) - (Adieu au Language) - (The Image Book)

© thevoid99 2012