Jacques Rivette filmography

Main article: Jacques Rivette
Rivette in 2006

Jacques Rivette (French: [ʒak ʁivɛt]; born 1 March 1928) is a French film director, screenwriter and film critic. He began his careers as a critics at Cahiers du cinéma in the 1950s and was a member of the French New Wave. His career did not achieve immediate success as fellow New Wave directors François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol experienced, but he found his personal style of improvisational filmmaking in the late 1960s and has made highly regarded films in the subsequent decades. He has directed twenty feature films, including the two-part Joan the Maiden, seven short films, a three-part television documentary and was an interviewer on another three-part television documentary. He has also acted in small roles or was interviewed in a few films. Many of his films are known for their long running time, including the 760 minute Out 1. Almost always at the insistence of the distributors, Rivette edited shorter versions of five of his films and considered some of them to be entirely new films with different meanings.[1]

Feature films

ReleaseTitleOriginal titleLengthNotes
1961 Paris Belongs to Us Paris nous appartient 140 minutes Filming began in 1958.
1967 The Nun La Religieuse 135 minutes Filming began in 1965.
1969 Mad Love L'amour fou 250 minutes Alternative version: 120 minutes.
1971 Out 1: Don't Touch Me Out 1: Noli me tangere 760 minutes Official alternate version: Out 1: Spectre (1974; 260 minutes). "Restored" version of Out 1: Noli me tangere (2006; 750 minutes).
1974 Celine and Julie Go Boating Céline et Julie vont en bateau 185 minutes
1976 Duelle Duelle (une quarantaine) 120 minutes Part 2: Scènes de la vie parallèle / Les Filles du Feu / Scenes of a Parallel Life / Girls of Fire
1976 Noroît Noroît (une vengeance) 130 minutes Part 3: Scènes de la vie parallèle / Les Filles du Feu / Scenes of a Parallel Life / Girls of Fire
Not theatrically released.
1983 Merry-Go-Round Merry-Go-Round 155 minutes Filming began in 1977, post-production was completed in 1981.
1982 Le Pont du Nord Le Pont du Nord 127 minutes
1984 Love on the Ground L'amour par terre 170 minutes Alternative version: 120 minutes.
1985 Wuthering Heights Hurlevent 130 minutes
1988 Gang of Four La Bande des quatre 160 minutes
1991 La Belle Noiseuse La Belle Noiseuse 240 minutes Official alternate version: La Belle Noiseuse: Divertimento (1991; 120 minutes).
1994 Joan the Maiden Jeanne la Pucelle 335 minutes Joan the Maiden, Part 1: The Battles (160 minutes), Joan the Maiden, Part 2: The Prisons (175 minutes)
1995 Up, Down, Fragile Haut bas fragile 170 minutes
1998 Top Secret Secret défense 170 minutes
2001 Who Knows? Va savoir 150 minutes Official alternate cut: Va savoir+ (2002; 220 minutes).
2003 The Story of Marie and Julien Histoire de Marie et Julien 151 minutes Unofficially Part 1: Scènes de la vie parallèle / Les Filles du Feu / Scenes of a Parallel Life / Girls of Fire
2007 The Duchess of Langeais Ne touchez pas la hache 137 minutes
2009 Around a Small Mountain 36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup 84 minutes

Short films and television work

YearTitleOriginal titleLengthNotes
1949 At the Four Corners Aux quatre coins 20 minutes Lost.
1950 The Quadrille Le quadrille 40 minutes Lost.
1952 The Diversion Le divertissement 45 minutes
1956 Fool's Mate Le Coup du berger 30 minutes
1966 Jean Renoir, The Master, Parts 1-3 Jean Renoir, le patron 154 minutes three episodes from the TV series Cinéastes de notre temps: La recherché du relatif, La direction d'acteurs and La regle et l'exception.
1974 Naissance et mont de Prométhée Naissance et mont de Prométhée 41 minutes
1981 Paris Goes Away Paris s'en va 25 minutes Short film made as a rehearsal for Le Pont du Nord.
1995 One of Ninon's Adventures "Paris" Segment 52 seconds Part of the omnibus film Lumiere and Company.

Other work

YearTitleDirectorRoleNotes
1950 Le Château de verre René Clément Actor (Un passant)
1954 Bérénice Éric Rohmer Cinematographer Short film
1954 Une Visite François Truffaut Cinematographer Short film
1954 Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves Jacques Becker Assistant to the director
1954 French Cancan Jean Renoir Assistant to the director
1956 La Sonate à Kreutzer Éric Rohmer Cinematographer Short film
1956 Fool's Mate Jacques Rivette Narrator Short film
1957 Jean Renoir parle de son art, Parts 1-3 Jean-Marie Coldefy Interviewer Rivette interviewed Renoir for three TV episodes: 1: Le cinéma et la parole, 2: Les progress de la technique, and 3: Le retour au naturel
1961 Paris Belongs to Us Jacques Rivette Actor (Romanian man at the party)
1961 Chronique d'un été Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin Participant Rivette appeared briefly with his girlfriend Marilù Parolini, who was a main subject in the documentary
1970 Rome is Burning Andre S. Labarthe Interviewee Episode of Cinéastes de notre temps
1977 Toute révolution est un coup de dés Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet Dedicatee Shot by William Lubtchansky and co-starring Marilù Parolini
1979 La mémoire courte Eduardo de Gregorio Actor (Marcel Jaucourt) Shot by William Lubtchansky and edited by Nicole Lubtchansky
1990 Jacques Rivette, le veilleur Claire Denis and Serge Daney Interviewee
1994 Joan the Maiden, Part 1: The Battles Jacques Rivette Actor (Le prêtre)
1995 Up, Down, Fragile Jacques Rivette Actor (Monsieur Pierre)

Theater work

DatesTitleVenueNotes
February 6 to March 5, 1963 La Religieuse Studio des Champs-Élysées Later adapted into the film La Religieuse.
April 18 to May 20, 1989 Tite et Bérénice and Bajazet Théâtre Gérard Philipe Same main cast from Gang of Four.

Alternative versions of his films

Rivette edited shorter versions of several of his films with long running times. When L'Amour fou was released in January 1969 the 127 minute alternate version was simultaneously released at the production company's request. This version was simply a shorter version of the original work and Rivette immediately disowned it.[2]

The shorter Out 1: Spectre was 260 minutes and released in March 1974.[3] Rivette said that Spectre was more of "a fiction about certain characters", "much tighter", "more compelling"[4] and that it was "a different film having its own logic; closer to a jigsaw or crossword puzzle than was [Noli me tangere], playing less on affectivity, more on rhymes and contrasts, ruptures and connections, caesurae and censorship."[5] When Out 1: Noli me tangere was restored in 2006, Rivette re-edited the film, rearranging scenes and cutting a ten minute sequence out of the original 760 minute version.[6]

Love on the Ground was released as a 120 minute version[7] after Rivette was forced to cut 50 minutes by the film's distributor. He said that the longer version was more complex and "structured similarly to Raymond Roussel’s New Impressions of Africa, where there is a phrase, and then a parenthesis, which is tied to yet another phrase, and another parenthesis, ad infinitum." In order to to cut 50 minutes out he simply "lifted the parentheses."[8]

The shorter cut of La Belle noiseuse (called La Belle noiseuse: Divertimento) was 120 minutes. He made this version due to contractual obligations to the film's producers and used different takes than the original film. This version is an entirely new film and not just a shorter version of the original work. The word Divertimento is both a reference to Igor Stravinsky's Divertimento from Le baiser de la fée and translates to a "not too serious work."[9] This shorter version changes the film's focus from the process of creating art to the evaluation of the finished product.[10]

Rivette's original 220 minute cut of Va Savoir (called Va Savoir+) premiered on April 24, 2002 and only sold 1,734 tickets in its seven week theatreical run at the cinema du Pantheon in Paris.[11] Rivette said that Va Savoir+ is a completely different film than Va Savoir, the major difference being lengthy scenes of the actors performing Pirandello's Come tu mi vuoi instead of just rehearsals. Rivette said that in the longer version Pirandello's play is "another character" in the film.[12]

Home video availability

Due to the rare nature of Rivette's works, many DVDs (such as the Region 1 Facets release of Jeanne la pucelle, and every DVD release globally of Va savoir) are of these alternate, shorter edits of his films. The complete version of his two-part film Jeanne la Pucelle was finally released by Artificial Eye on Region 2 DVD in the UK in 2009. New Yorker Films announced it would release a Blu-ray of Celine and Julie Go Boating in 2012.[13] The German company absolut MEDIEN released the complete Out 1: Don't Touch Me with Spectre onto DVD in 2013.[14]

References

Notes
  1. ↑ Wiles 2012, pp. 151-162.
  2. ↑ Wiles 2012, p. 42.
  3. ↑ Wiles 2012, pp. 153-154.
  4. ↑ Wiles 2012, p. 58.
  5. ↑ Wiles 2012, p. 54.
  6. ↑ Wiles 2012, p. 137.
  7. ↑ Wiles 2012, p. 156.
  8. ↑ Wiles 2012, p. 116.
  9. ↑ Wiles 2012, p. 38.
  10. ↑ Wiles 2012, p. 40.
  11. ↑ Wiles 2012, p. 160.
  12. ↑ Wiles 2012, p. 91.
  13. ↑ "Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)". Newyorkerfilms.com. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
  14. ↑ "absolut MEDIEN - Out 1 − Noli me tangere". Absolutmedien.de. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
Bibliography
  • Wiles, Mary (2012). Jacques Rivette (Contemporary Film Directors). Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07834-7.

External links