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Céline and Julie Go Boating, Jacques Rivette's biggest commercial hit, is an exhilarating examination of the themes of theatricality, paranoia and la vie Parisienne, all wrapped up in an extended and entrancing exploration of the nature of filmmaking (and film-watching). Previously released by the BFI on DVD, it now comes to Blu-ray, in a new restoration, on 20 November 2017. Special features include a new feature length commentary by Adrian Martin.
Céline (Juliet Berto), a magician, and Julie (Dominique Labourier), a librarian, meet in Montmartre and wind up sharing the same flat, bed, fiancé, clothes, identity and imagination. Soon, thanks to a magic sweet, they find themselves spectators, then participants, in a Henry James-inspired 'film-within-the-film' - a melodrama unfolding in a mysterious suburban house with the 'Phantom Ladies Over Paris' (Bulle Ogier and Marie-France Pisier), a sinister man (Barbet Schroeder) and his child. |
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