The Lycée Pierre-Corneille ( French pronunciation: [lise pjɛʁ kɔʁnɛj] ; also known as the Lycée Corneille ) is a state secondary school located in the city of Rouen , France.
127-569: Jacques Rivette ( French: [ʒak ʁivɛt] ; 1 March 1928 – 29 January 2016) was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma . He made twenty-nine films, including L'Amour fou (1969), Out 1 (1971), Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974), and La Belle Noiseuse (1991). His work is noted for its improvisation , loose narratives, and lengthy running times. Inspired by Jean Cocteau to become
254-638: A Grundig portable tape recorder weighing over 9 pounds (4.1 kg) which was never used by journalists. Although most entertainment reporting was limited to sound bites or anecdotes from film actors, Rivette and Truffaut became acquainted with the directors they interviewed and published their in-depth interviews verbatim. From 1954 to 1957, Cahiers du Cinéma published a series of interviews with noted film directors including Jacques Becker , Abel Gance , Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock , Fritz Lang, Jean Renoir , Roberto Rossellini and Orson Welles . While he wrote criticism, Rivette continued his filmmaking career; during
381-519: A quality " and in December 1962 published a list of 162 film directors who had made their feature film debut since 1959. Many of these directors, such as Edmond Agabra and Henri Zaphiratos, were not as successful or enduring as the well-known members of the New Wave and today would not be considered part of it. Shortly after Truffaut's published list appeared, Godard publicly declared that the New Wave
508-470: A 12-part television broadcast, the Office de Radiodiffusion-Television Francaise refused to purchase it. With help from Suzanne Schiffman , Rivette spent over a year editing a 260-minute version entitled Out 1: Spectre and released in 1974. Out 1 was highly praised, and become a cult film. Because it was notoriously difficult to see in its entirety, and critics Jonathan Rosenbaum and Dennis Lim have called
635-513: A May meeting attended by Rivette, the committee called for a strike by film-industry workers and a shutdown of the 1968 Cannes Film Festival in solidarity. Rivette called Truffaut at Cannes with the news, and Truffaut, Godard and other directors stopped the festival. In Paris, the Etats généraux du cinéma Francais organised mass street protests as part of the May 68 protest movement. Rivette's next film
762-469: A Small Mountain (2009), and it was revealed three years later that he had Alzheimer's disease . Very private about his personal life, Rivette was briefly married to photographer and screenwriter Marilù Parolini during the early 1960s and later married Véronique Manniez. Jacques Pierre Louis Rivette was born in Rouen , Seine-Maritime, France, to André Rivette and Andrée Amiard, into a family "where everyone
889-491: A backstage story about the relationship between the stage director (Kalfon) and his wife and lead actress (Ogier). The film ends with an hour-long argument between Kalfon and Ogier, during which they destroy their apartment and its contents. Kalfon was allowed to direct the stage play during filming. Rivette cast André S. Labarthe as the director of the TV crew after working with him on Cinéastes de notre temps , allowing him to direct
1016-494: A character for a new film without a plot or interaction with each other. He then developed the basic structure for what would become Out 1 (1971). From April to June 1970, Rivette shot over 30 hours of 16mm footage as his cast improvised a story involving conspiracy theories and theatrical rehearsals. Out 1 starred Jean-Pierre Leaud as Colin, a Parisian con artist who pretends to be a deaf-mute and begins receiving anonymous messages referring to Lewis Carroll 's The Hunting of
1143-472: A commercial release until 2008. Truffaut, with The 400 Blows (1959), and Godard, with Breathless (1960) had unexpected international successes, both critical and financial, that turned the world's attention to the activities of the New Wave and enabled the movement to flourish. Part of their technique was to portray characters not readily labeled as protagonists in the classic sense of audience identification. The auteurs of this era owe their popularity to
1270-469: A couple caught up in romantic farce as they attempt to stage Luigi Pirandello 's Come tu mi vuoi and search for a missing manuscript. Rivette pays tribute to Howard Hawks' screwball comedies , and includes a reference to It Happened One Night (1934). The film's theatrical-director character, Ugo, intentionally resembles Gerard in Paris Belongs to Us . A longer version, Va Savoir+ was released
1397-583: A critic was never his aim, but called it "a good exercise". That year he made his second short film, Le Quadrille , produced by and starring Godard, who raised the money by stealing and selling his grandfather's collection of rare Paul Valéry first editions . Rivette described Le Quadrille as a film in which "absolutely nothing happens. It's just four people sitting around a table, looking at each other." According to film critic Tom Milne , it had "a certain hypnotic, obsessional quality as, for 40 minutes, it attempted to show what happens when nothing happens". When
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#17328011772461524-495: A dictatorial plot-line . They were especially against the French "cinema of quality", the type of high-minded, literary period films held in esteem at French film festivals, often regarded as "untouchable" by criticism. New Wave critics and directors studied the work of Western classics and applied new avant-garde stylistic direction. The low-budget approach helped filmmakers get at the essential art form and find what was, to them,
1651-443: A film about 1920s New York City taxi dance halls ; this led to Up, Down, Fragile (1995). Richard, Denicourt and Côte star as three women struggling to overcome personal obstacles, with musical numbers at a mysterious nightclub commenting on their lives. In the film, a nod to 1920s and 1930s Hollywood backstage musicals , Anna Karina appears as a nightclub singer whose songs refer to her previous films with Godard. Up, Down, Fragile
1778-541: A film adaptation of Denis Diderot 's novel La Religieuse to producer Georges de Beauregard . Undaunted, Rivette and co-writer Gruault began writing the script. In 1962, Rivette suggested that Godard's wife, Anna Karina , would be perfect in the lead role. Godard agreed, but de Beauregard and producer Eric Schulmberger rejected the idea after a Commission de Controle (the French censorship board) review said that it would be banned. Godard and Karina received funding from theatrical producer Antoine Bourseiller to produce
1905-623: A filmmaker"; it led to La Belle Noiseuse ( The Beautiful Troublemaker ) (1991), the most-acclaimed film of Rivette's later career. Loosely based on the Balzac short story " The Unknown Masterpiece ", it depicts the relationship between reclusive, uninspired painter Frenhofer ( Michel Piccoli ), his wife and former model Liz (Birkin) and his new model, Marianne ( Emmanuelle Béart ). Marianne inspires Frenhofer to finish his long-abandoned magnum opus , La Belle Noiseuse , as Liz and Marianne's boyfriend become increasingly jealous. The four-hour film shows
2032-577: A filmmaker, Rivette shot his first short film at age twenty. He moved to Paris to pursue his career, frequenting Henri Langlois ' Cinémathèque Française and other ciné-clubs ; there, he met François Truffaut , Jean-Luc Godard , Éric Rohmer , Claude Chabrol and other future members of the New Wave. Rivette began writing film criticism, and was hired by André Bazin for Cahiers du Cinéma in 1953. In his criticism, he expressed an admiration for American films – especially those of genre directors such as John Ford , Alfred Hitchcock and Nicholas Ray – and
2159-528: A fresh look to the cinema with improvised dialogue, rapid changes of scene, and shots that broke the common 180° axis of camera movement . In many films of the French New Wave, the camera was used not to mesmerize the audience with elaborate narrative and illusory images, but rather to play with audience expectations. Godard was arguably the movement's most influential figure; his method of filmmaking, often used to shock and awe audiences out of passivity,
2286-624: A house where two groups of actors are rehearsing productions of Aeschylus 's Prometheus Bound and Seven Against Thebes . Out 1 was shown only once in its 760-minute original version at the Maison de la Culture in Le Havre , on 9–10 September 1971. Over 300 people attended the weekend-long premiere, and Martin Even of Le Monde called it a "voyage beyond cinema" because most of the audience had traveled from Paris to see it. Originally intended as
2413-400: A much more comfortable and contemporary form of production. Charlie Chaplin , Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Howard Hawks , John Ford, Sam Fuller and Don Siegel were held up in admiration. French New Wave is influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema . In a 1961 interview, Truffaut said that "the 'New Wave' is neither a movement, nor a school, nor a group, it's
2540-522: A new means of expression on the same level as painting and the novel ... a form in which and by which an artist can express his thoughts, however abstract they may be, or translate his obsessions exactly as he does in the contemporary essay or novel. This is why I would like to call this new age of cinema the age of the caméra-stylo. " Some of the most prominent pioneers among the group, including François Truffaut , Jean-Luc Godard , Éric Rohmer , Claude Chabrol , and Jacques Rivette , began as critics for
2667-560: A nonpolitical film magazine to a Marxist journal examining the relationship between politics and modern culture. Unlike Rohmer, Rivette allowed writers such as Michel Delahaye and Jean-Louis Comolli to publish articles gravitating towards politics and philosophy and not necessarily related to film. They wrote pieces on Martin Heidegger and Louis Althusser and interviewed non-filmmakers such as Roland Barthes and composer Pierre Boulez . Rivette and Delahaye's 1963 interview with Barthes
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#17328011772462794-454: A post-World War II France, filmmakers sought low-budget alternatives to the usual production methods, and were inspired by the generation of Italian Neorealists before them. Half necessity and half vision, New Wave directors used all that they had available to channel their artistic visions directly to the theatre. Finally, the French New Wave, as the European modern Cinema , is focused on
2921-427: A readable script for the publication led him to resurrect the project. Rivette, Pascal Bonitzer and Christine Laurent collaborated on the script with the actors during production of the revised The Story of Marie and Julien (2003). Rivette cast Béart and Radziwilowicz in the lead roles, saying that it was "more interesting and more exciting" to work with actors with whom he had previously worked, and some dialogue in
3048-508: A return to silent cinema nor a pantomime, nor choreography: something else, where the movements of the bodies, their counterpoint and inscription in the space of the screen, will be the basis of [a] mise-en-scene ." The tetralogy , reflecting the political situation in France, including the conservative backlash after May '68 and the election of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing , would be tied together by improvised musical scores. Rivette collaborated on
3175-404: A romance with a wealthy Italian drifter ( Sergio Castellitto ). The film, which premiered at the 66th Venice International Film Festival , was the director's last. French New Wave The New Wave ( French : Nouvelle Vague , French pronunciation: [nuvɛl vaɡ] ), also called the French New Wave , is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement
3302-535: A school to educate the children of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie in accordance with the purest doctrinal principles of Roman Catholicism . The opened in 1593, run by the Jesuits and known initially as the Collège de Bourbon . From 1595 to 1604, teaching ceased because of Jesuit expulsions. Between 1614 and 1631, the gatehouse and chapel were built. By 1662, the lycée taught two thousand pupils. The chapel
3429-428: A series of four films, Scènes de la vie parallèle . Each film would revolve around two female leads. Part one was to be a love story, part two a fantasy, part three an adventure and part four a musical comedy. According to Rivette, his intention for the film series was "to invent a new approach to film acting where speech, pared down to essential phrases, precise formulas, would play the role of poetic punctuation. Neither
3556-475: A stage version of La Religieuse . Rivette directed and Godard produced the three-hour play, which opened at the Studio des Champs-Élysées on 6 February 1963 and closed on 5 March. Although the production was a financial failure, it received good reviews and Karina won several awards for her performance; Lotte Eisner called it "the most beautiful theatre I have seen since Bertolt Brecht ". Rivette's staging, in
3683-582: A two-hour version, La Belle Noiseuse: Divertimento , was theatrically released. Rivette then made a two-part film about the life of Joan of Arc entitled Joan the Maiden : Joan the Maiden, Part 1: The Battles and Joan the Maiden, Part 2: The Prisons (1994). Rivette's film differed from well-known interpretations of Joan by Carl Theodor Dreyer and Robert Bresson , focusing on her popularity in France rather than her suffering and martyrdom. Loosely based on Rivette's memories of Charles Péguy's books on Joan,
3810-578: A two-year 'post baccalaureate' curriculum that enabled entry to the Grandes écoles . In 1873, the Lycée was renamed ' Lycée Pierre-Corneille ' in honour of the alumnus, the 17th century writer and academic, Pierre Corneille . At this time the petit lycée was added for younger pupils. In 1890, the sports club Les Francs Joueurs was founded. Since 1918 the school has run a Norwegian 'college' that houses typically twenty-four boys for three years each. This
3937-429: A unique cinematic style with L'amour fou . Influenced by the political turmoil of May 68 , improvisational theatre and an in-depth interview with filmmaker Jean Renoir , Rivette began working with large groups of actors on character development and allowing events to unfold on camera. This technique led to the thirteen-hour Out 1 which, although rarely screened, is considered a Holy Grail of cinephiles . His films of
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4064-422: A year after filming was completed, he added footage of the film's composers, Barre Phillips and John Surman, in performance despite its lack of relation to the plot or characters. Merry-Go-Round , theatrically released in 1981, received mediocre reviews. In 1980, Rivette decided to remake Out 1 . Ogier, the only original-cast member available for the project, and her daughter Pascale Ogier worked with Rivette on
4191-528: Is a pharmacist". According to childhood friend André Ruellan , Rivette's father was a skilled painter who loved opera. His younger sister said that their home in Rouen was next to a cinema theatre, where she remembered watching Pathé Baby 's Felix le Chat cartoons with Rivette and their grandparents. Rivette, educated at the Lycée Pierre-Corneille , said that he briefly studied literature at
4318-676: Is a play on Charles Péguy 's quote, "Paris belongs to no one." With borrowed equipment, a loan of ₣80,000 from Cahiers du Cinéma and short film-reel ends provided by Chabrol, the silent film was shot in the summer of 1958 and sound was added the following year. Among Rivette's filming locations were the roof of the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt , the Rue des Cannettes, the Place Sorbonne and the Arts bridge. He struggled to finish
4445-432: Is considered the turning point for Cahiers as a magazine analyzing film from a semiotic perspective. Rivette was an ambitious and financially irresponsible editor; shortly after an expensive, 250-page double issue on American films, Cahiers needed financial help. It was bought by teen-magazine owner Daniel Filipacchi , and its style became "splashier" and more youth-oriented. Rivette remained editor until April 1965, and
4572-566: The Cinémathèque Française , were the dual father figures of the movement. These men of cinema valued the expression of the director's personal vision in both the film's style and script. Truffaut also credits the American film Little Fugitive (1953) by Ruth Orkin , Ray Ashley and Morris Engel with helping to start the French New Wave, when he said: "Our New Wave would never have come into being, if it hadn't been for
4699-456: The 1959 Cannes Film Festival , Truffaut and Chabrol used their fame to promote Paris Belongs to Us and help Rivette finish the film. According to Truffaut, who obtained funds for its completion, "The release of Paris nous appartient is a score for every member of the Cahiers du cinéma team". He helped Rivette premiere it at the Studio des Ursulines on 16 December 1961, followed by a run at
4826-568: The 39th Berlin International Film Festival . He enjoyed working with the four young actresses in La Bande des quatre so much, that Rivette returned to the theatre. The actresses had performed a scene from Pierre Corneille 's Suréna in La Bande des quatre , so Rivette, the actresses and additional performers rehearsed Corneille's Tite et Bérénice , Jean Racine 's Bajazet and a play by Pierre de Marivaux (which
4953-473: The " new sincerity " subculture within the U.S. that involve deliberately defying certain critical expectations in filmmaking. Alexandre Astruc 's manifesto "The Birth of a New Avant-Garde: The Camera-Stylo", published in L'Écran on 30 March 1948, outlined some of the ideas that were later expanded upon by François Truffaut and the Cahiers du cinéma . It argues that "cinema was in the process of becoming
5080-496: The 16mm footage. Rivette and cinematographer Alain Levent then filmed the stage performers and TV crew in 35mm from a distance without intervening. The film was entirely improvised, including the scene in which Kalfon and Ogier destroy their apartment (which had to be done in a single take for budgetary reasons). Released in 1969, the 252-minute film received positive reviews. L'amour fou gave Rivette his second Sutherland Trophy from
5207-506: The 1970s, such as Celine and Julie Go Boating , often incorporated fantasy and were better-regarded. After attempting to make four consecutive films, however, Rivette had a nervous breakdown and his career slowed for several years. During the early 1980s, he began a business partnership with producer Martine Marignac, who produced all his subsequent films. Rivette's output increased from then on, and his film La Belle Noiseuse received international praise. He retired after completing Around
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5334-462: The 21st century. The movies featured unprecedented methods of expression, such as long tracking shots (like the famous traffic jam sequence in Godard's 1967 film Weekend ). Also, these movies featured existential themes, often stressing the individual and the acceptance of the absurdity of human existence. Filled with irony and sarcasm, the films also tend to reference other films. Many of
5461-506: The 35mm short film Le Coup du Berger (1956). Written by Rivette, Chabrol and Bitsch, the film is about a young girl who receives a mink coat from her lover and must hide it from her husband; spoken commentary by Rivette describes the action like moves in a chess game. Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Jean-Claude Brialy appeared in the film, with Godard, Truffaut, Bitsch and Robert Lachenay as extras. Shot in two weeks in Chabrol's apartment,
5588-559: The Agriculteurs cinema in Paris. Although reviews of the film were mixed, it was praised by L'Express . Pierre Marcabru of Combat said, "The connection between image and sound has never been so striking, evocative or necessary", and Jeander of Libération praised the film's depiction of "the moral and intellectual confusion of these young people who are repressed by their epoch for more than their elders". Rivette, who later said "It's
5715-601: The British Film Institute. The director found his cinematic style during the making of this film. According to Rivette, "With improvisation, you automatically listen" and an author is an "analyst, a person who must listen to what the people say—all words are important. You must listen to all and not have any preconceived ideas as a director". Invigorated by his new filmmaking technique, Rivette invited over forty actors (including Jean-Pierre Leaud , Juliet Berto , Michael Lonsdale and Bulle Ogier) to each develop
5842-462: The Centre national de la cinématographie refusing three times to fund the film. The director accommodated his tight budget by making Bulle Ogier's character claustrophobic, because he could not afford many interior scenes. According to Rivette biographer Mary Wiles, as Paris Belong to Us is a reflection of France during the 1950s and Out 1 the 1960s, Le Pont du Nord completes a trilogy by reflecting
5969-768: The Cinématographique's front row for screenings; Rivette met Truffaut at a screening of The Rules of the Game (1939), and often sat next to Godard for several months without ever speaking to him before the latter introduced himself. Rivette was active in post-screening debates, and Rohmer said that, in film-quiz competitions at the Studio Parnasse he was "unbeatable". Rivette credited Langlois's screenings and lectures for helping him persevere during his early impoverishment in Paris: "A word from you saved me and opened
6096-621: The Festival Indépendant du Film Maudit (Independent Festival of Accursed Film), a film festival in Biarritz produced by film critics Jacques Doniol-Valcroze , André Bazin and members of Objectif 49 (a group of avant-garde artists). Rivette, Godard, Truffaut and future cinematographer Charles Bitsch, arriving at the gala event in casual dress, were refused entrance by the doorman until Cocteau allowed them to enter. Openly antagonistic to members of Objectif 49, they loudly criticised
6223-532: The French New Wave films were produced on tight budgets, often shot in a friend's apartment or yard, using the director's friends as the cast and crew. Directors were also forced to improvise with equipment (for example, using a shopping cart for tracking shots. ) The cost of film was also a major concern; thus, efforts to save film turned into stylistic innovations. For example, in Jean-Luc Godard 's Breathless ( À bout de souffle ), after being told
6350-662: The Left Bank filmmakers). Roud described a distinctive "fondness for a kind of Bohemian life and an impatience with the conformity of the Right Bank, a high degree of involvement in literature and the plastic arts , and a consequent interest in experimental filmmaking ", as well as an identification with the political left . The filmmakers tended to collaborate with one another. Jean-Pierre Melville , Alain Robbe-Grillet , and Marguerite Duras are also associated with
6477-461: The New Wave directors in that they practiced cinematic modernism . Their emergence also came in the 1950s and they also benefited from the youthful audience. The two groups, however, were not in opposition; Cahiers du cinéma advocated for Left Bank cinema. Left Bank directors include Chris Marker , Alain Resnais , and Agnès Varda (Varda's husband, Jacques Demy , is sometimes grouped with
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#17328011772466604-420: The New Wave was to some extent an exercise by the Cahiers writers in applying this philosophy to the world by directing movies themselves. Apart from the role that films by Jean Rouch have played in the movement, Chabrol's Le Beau Serge (1958) is traditionally (but debatably) credited as the first New Wave feature. Agnès Varda 's La Pointe Courte (1955) was chronologically the first, but did not have
6731-458: The New Wave way of filmmaking often presented a documentary style. The films exhibited direct sounds on film stock that required less light. Filming techniques included fragmented, discontinuous editing, and long takes. The combination of realism, subjectivity, and authorial commentary created a narrative ambiguity in the sense that questions that arise in a film are not answered in the end. Although naturally associated with Francophone countries,
6858-462: The Snark and Honoré de Balzac 's Histoire des Treize ( The Thirteen ). Colin becomes obsessed with the messages, and begins to believe that a Utopian secret society like the one in Balzac's short story is contacting him. He is led to a boutique and meets Frederique (Juliet Berto), a young thief. Colin and Frederique use stolen letters to track down what they believe is the secret group, Thirteen, at
6985-456: The adaptation of safe literary works into unimaginative films. Along with Truffaut, a number of writers for Cahiers du cinéma became leading New Wave filmmakers, including Jean-Luc Godard , Éric Rohmer , Jacques Rivette , and Claude Chabrol . The associated Left Bank film community included directors such as Alain Resnais , Agnès Varda , Jacques Demy and Chris Marker . Using portable equipment and requiring little or no set up time,
7112-431: The audience directly , were radically innovative at the time. Classic French cinema adhered to the principles of strong narrative, creating what Godard described as an oppressive and deterministic aesthetic of plot. In contrast, New Wave filmmakers made no attempts to suspend the viewer's disbelief; in fact, they took steps to constantly remind the viewer that a film is just a sequence of moving images, no matter how clever
7239-408: The availability of paint in tubes, which allowed artists to paint outdoors, was similar to technological advancements enabling filmmakers to shoot in the streets. Technical innovations such as faster film stock and the portable Nagra sound recorder became available after the director finished Paris Belongs to Us . After the financial failure of Paris Belongs to Us , Rivette unsuccessfully pitched
7366-428: The ban's effect on freedom of speech. Rivette told Le Figaro Magazine , "It was as though they had guillotined us", and in Rouen his father André vehemently defended the film against the city's efforts to ban it. Godard wrote a lengthy editorial criticising Minister of Culture André Malraux . Shortly afterwards, Malraux publicly defended The Nun , allowing it to premiere at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival , where it
7493-736: The blurring of fiction and reality. Geraldine Chaplin and Jane Birkin star as members of a theatrical troupe who are invited to appear in a new play resembling the real life of its director (Kalfon) and the mysterious disappearance of his wife. In a break from his experimental, complex style, Rivette next adapted Emily Brontë 's Wuthering Heights . Based on the novel's first part and set in 1930s southern France, Hurlevent starred three unknown actors: Fabienne Babe as Catherine, Lucas Belvaux as Roch (Heathcliff) and Oliver Cruveiller as Catherine's brother, William. Hurlevent , Rivette's first film in years without his usual troupe of actors and technicians and modeled on Balthus ' India ink illustrations,
7620-450: The budget went entirely to purchasing film stock . It was distributed by Braunberger in 1957. Truffaut called Le Coup du berger the inspiration for him, Chabrol, Alain Resnais and Georges Franju to make their first films: "It had begun. And it had begun thanks to Jacques Rivette. Of all of us, he was the most fiercely determined to move." Rohmer praised the film's mise-en-scene and wrote that it had "more truth and good cinema than in all
7747-468: The characters as the director had done a decade earlier. With co-screenwriter Suzanne Schiffman they made the 30-minute short film Paris s'en va (1980) as a sketch for the eventual feature Le Pont du Nord (1982), which was distributed in 1982. Le Pont du Nord starred Bulle and Pascale Ogier as two women who meet and investigate a strange Snakes and Ladders -like map of Paris and a mysterious man named Max. Rivette had difficulty finding financing, with
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#17328011772467874-462: The classical style of Marivaux, was intentionally simple. He and Gruault continued reworking the film script (which was finally passed by the censorship board), but Bourseiller could not afford to produce a film version, so the project was shelved. After André Bazin's death in 1958, Rohmer became editor-in-chief of Cahiers du cinéma . By 1962, Rohmer was often at odds with his staff for not promoting New Wave filmmakers. After several financial failures,
8001-446: The classical versions by Aeschylus , Sophocles and Euripides . Top Secret pays tribute to Double Indemnity (1944), and biographer Mary Wiles saw influences from Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951) and Vertigo (1958). Wiles called Rivette's three films with Bonnaire feminist , writing that they "reveal a deep personal connection with [Rivette]." Va savoir (2001) starred Jeanne Balibar and Sergio Castellitto as
8128-456: The contract for the Scènes de la vie parallèle series to require only one more film, the intended first or fourth part. Rivette decided that he wanted to film both or neither and made an unrelated film, Merry-Go-Round (1981). Tchalgadjieff had told him that Maria Schneider wanted to make a film with him and actor Joe Dallesandro and Rivette agreed. Shot in 1978 but not completed until 1981,
8255-405: The controversy surrounding The Nun , Rivette made a series of documentaries on director Jean Renoir for the French television series Cinéastes de notre temps which aired in 1966 as Jean Renoir, le patron . Around this time, Rivette and Gruault worked on a script for The Taking of Power by Louis XIV ; Rivette decided that he did not want to direct another costume drama, and Rossellini directed
8382-401: The directors wanted better publicity, with Cahiers an "instrument of combat" of the New Wave. Rohmer profiled New Wave filmmakers in the December 1962 issue before his June 1963 resignation, when Rivette became his successor. Rohmer later said that the pressure to leave Cahiers was the best thing that ever happened to him as a film director. Under Rivette's leadership, Cahiers changed from
8509-610: The doors of the temple". Unlike his contemporaries, Rivette attended screenings at the Cinémathèque well into the 1970s. He and his friends also attended screenings at the Ciné-Club du Quartier Latin, which was run by Rohmer. Although Rivette began to write film criticism in 1950 for the Gazette du Cinéma , founded by Rohmer with Bouchet as his assistant, the magazine ceased publication after five issues; Rivette said that being
8636-495: The famous film magazine Cahiers du cinéma . Cahiers co-founder and theorist André Bazin was a prominent source of influence for the movement. By means of criticism and editorialization, they laid the groundwork for a set of concepts, revolutionary at the time, which the American film critic Andrew Sarris called auteur theory . (The original French La politique des auteurs , translated literally as "The policy of authors".) Bazin and Henri Langlois , founder and curator of
8763-523: The festival. The evening cemented the group's friendship, earning them a reputation of bohemian "young Turks" and troublemakers. Chabrol, Grualult, Rohmer, and Jean Douchet also attended and roomed together at the Biarritz Lycée dormitory for the festival. Rivette criticised the festival in the November issue of Gazette du cinéma , calling Objectif 49 arrogant and claiming a victory over them. He
8890-794: The film a "Holy Grail" for cinephiles. The first revival screening of the original version was at the Rotterdam Film Festival in February 1989. It was finally shown on French TV during the early 1990s and was first shown in the US at the Museum of the Moving Image in December 2006 to a sold-out audience. During the summer of 1973, Rivette attempted to make Phénix , a film about the early-1900s Paris theatrical world which would have starred Jeanne Moreau . Due to budgetary constraints, he
9017-560: The film and find distributors. In Paris Belongs to Us , Anne (Betty Schneider), a young Parisian student rehearsing for a production of Shakespeare 's Pericles , deals with the sudden death of the play's composer, a missing tape recording of its musical score, a secret society seeking world domination, an eccentric, paranoid American journalist, the suicide of the play's producer and the mysterious death of her brother. Chabrol, Godard, Jacques Demy and Rivette appear in minor roles. Le Beau Serge and The 400 Blows were successful, and at
9144-625: The film in 1966. In February 1968, Henri Langlois was ousted from the Cinémathèque Francaise by Malraux and Minister of Cultural Affairs Pierre Moinot ; a government-appointed board of directors assumed control, and Rivette and his old friends reunited to fight for Langlois' reinstatement. With the Cahiers du Cinéma office as their headquarters, current and former staff members, including Rivette, Truffaut, Godard, Rohmer and Chabrol, began mass letter-writing and telephone campaigns to recruit support. Within days, filmmakers from around
9271-452: The film is a detective story about a missing sister and inheritance. Rivette relied on improvisation during its production, which he described after a few days as "going very badly". Although Schneider was also recovering from an illness and she and Rivette wanted to abandon the project, they were persuaded to continue by the cast and crew. Rivette said, "There were two people in poor health during filming, and there wasn’t any money at all". Over
9398-581: The film of a sixteen-year-old child, but maybe its naïveté is where its strength lies", won the Sutherland Trophy for best first film from the British Film Institute . Despite being the first of his friends to begin work on a feature, Chabrol, Truffaut and Godard had their feature-film debuts distributed before Rivette in what the French press called New Wave cinema. Rivette later compared the New Wave to impressionist painting ;
9525-415: The film was partially shot in his hometown of Rouen. Joan the Maiden , starring Sandrine Bonnaire , was released in 1994. With its large budget, the film was not a financial success. Because of this, Martine Marignac wanted to make a quick, inexpensive film; Rivette, short of ideas, began assembling a cast. He contacted Nathalie Richard , Marianne Denicourt and Laurence Côte , who gave him an idea for
9652-488: The film was screened at the Ciné-Club du Quartier Latin, Rivette recalled, "After ten minutes, people started to leave, and at the end, the only ones who stayed were Jean-Luc and a girl." Later calling it Lettrist , he said that Isidore Isou , the founder of Lettrism, considered the film "ingenious". After casual acquaintanceship and collaboration, Rivette and his fellow cinephiles became close friends in September 1950 at
9779-409: The film was too long and he must cut it down to one hour and a half he decided (on the suggestion of Jean-Pierre Melville ) to remove several scenes from the feature using jump cuts , as they were filmed in one long take. Parts that did not work were simply cut from the middle of the take, a practical decision, and also a purposeful stylistic one. The cinematic stylings of the French New Wave brought
9906-506: The film-maker passes "the essay attitude, thinking – in a novelist way – on his own way to do essays." The corresponding "right bank" group is constituted of the more famous and financially successful New Wave directors associated with Cahiers du cinéma ( Claude Chabrol , François Truffaut , and Jean-Luc Godard ). Unlike the Cahiers group, Left Bank directors were older and less movie-crazed. They tended to see cinema akin to other arts, such as literature. However, they were similar to
10033-487: The filming and said that the plot was carefully constructed in advance. Filled with references to Alice in Wonderland , Jean Cocteau and Marcel Proust , Céline and Julie Go Boating begins when Julie (Labourier), and Céline (Berto) meet by chance and become friends. They begin to visit a mysterious "House of Fiction" where the same melodrama (based on two short stories by Henry James ) plays out every day, ending with
10160-579: The following year. According to Saul Austerlitz, it is "a stunning film, and is yet another peak in Jacques Rivette's exceptional career." In 2002, Rivette published a book of scripts from three of his unmade films, including Marie et Julien . The script for Marie et Julien had never been completed, and the footage from the three days of shooting was lost; Rivette worked from "cryptic notes" taken by his assistant, Claire Denis, which cinematographer William Lubtchansky had kept for decades. His work on
10287-401: The group. The nouveau roman movement in literature was also a strong element of the Left Bank style, with authors contributing to many of the films. Left Bank films include La Pointe Courte , Hiroshima mon amour , La jetée , Last Year at Marienbad , and Trans-Europ-Express . Source: Lyc%C3%A9e Pierre-Corneille Founded by the Jesuits in 1593, the school
10414-561: The history of cinema . The term was first used by a group of French film critics and cinephiles associated with the magazine Cahiers du cinéma in the late 1950s and 1960s. These critics rejected the Tradition de qualité ("Tradition of Quality") of mainstream French cinema, which emphasized craft over innovation and old works over experimentation. This was apparent in a manifesto-like 1954 essay by François Truffaut , Une certaine tendance du cinéma français , where he denounced
10541-644: The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment , the school became associated with the 'Ecole Centrale'; the study of humanities was reduced in favour of a broader-based curriculum. After 1803 it became known as the 'Lycée Impérial' and taught humanities and mathematics following the principles and discipline of the Napoleonic code . Successful students were awarded the Baccalauréat and subjects increased to include languages and Natural Sciences. The school then developed
10668-413: The introduction to which inspired Out 1 . Jeanne Balibar and Guillaume Depardieu star as lovers in early 1823 Majorca who are involved in a tormented, frustrating relationship. The film premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival . In 2009, Rivette made 36 vues du pic Saint-Loup ; Jane Birkin starred as a woman who returns to her childhood circus troupe after her father dies, and begins
10795-407: The leads; other Marc'O performers appeared in supporting roles. According to the director, he cast Kalfon because of his dissimilarity to Rivette since he was self-conscious about the character's autobiographical aspects. The film has several layers, including a theatrical group rehearsing a production of Jean Racine 's Andromaque ; a TV documentary crew filming the making of the play in 16mm, and
10922-475: The movement has had a continual influence within various other cinephile cultures over the past several decades inside of many other nations. The United Kingdom and the United States , both of them being primarily English-speaking , are of note. " Kitchen sink realism " as an artistic approach intellectually challenging social conventions and traditions in the U.K. is an example, as are some elements of
11049-460: The movement. Although he was the first New Wave director to begin work on a feature film, Paris Belongs to Us was not released until 1961, by which time Chabrol, Truffaut and Godard released their own first features and popularised the movement worldwide. Rivette became editor of Cahiers du Cinéma during the early 1960s and publicly fought French censorship of his second feature film, The Nun (1966). He then re-evaluated his career, developing
11176-421: The movement. Politically and financially drained, France tended to fall back on the old popular pre-war traditions. One such tradition was straight narrative cinema, specifically classical French film. The movement has its roots in rebellion against the reliance on past forms (often adapted from traditional novelistic structures), criticizing, in particular, the way these forms could force the audience to submit to
11303-586: The murder of a young girl by the enigmatic Sophie (Marie-France Pisier). Shot in five weeks during the summer of 1973, Céline and Julie Go Boating won the Special Jury Prize at the 1974 Locarno International Film Festival . It was produced by Barbet Schroeder and distributed by Les Films du Losange . Jonathan Rosenbaum praised it, writing that he knew "many women who consider Céline et Julie vont en bateau their favourite film about female friendship ". Rivette then conceived and obtained funding for
11430-468: The original notes was unchanged. Although the film lacked the improvised musical score connecting the first two films, the Madame X character resembles the moon goddess and Marie the sun goddess. It premiered at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival . In 2007, Rivette made The Duchess of Langeais , a faithful adaptation of Balzac's novel , and the second of Balzac's trilogy, Histoire des treize ,
11557-409: The other French films released in the past year." In 1957, Italian neorealist director Roberto Rossellini announced that he wanted to produce a series of films about life in France. Several members of the French New Wave submitted scripts that would become their first films, including Chabrol's Le Beau Serge (1958), Rohmer's Sign of Leo (1959) and Truffaut's The 400 Blows (1959). Rivette
11684-725: The painting's progress in real time, one brush stroke at a time, with hand close-ups by French abstract painter Bernard Dufour . According to Rivette, "We tried truly to make a film that did not talk about painting, but approached it". The film earned him the Grand Prix at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival and the Prix Méliès from the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics . It received five César Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director (Rivette's only nomination in that category). Shortly after its Cannes success,
11811-483: The police barricades, briefly entering the Cinémathèque with Anne Wiazemsky . In March 1968, Rivette was appointed to an advisory committee, and the following month Langlois was reinstated in the Cinémathèque. The protests led to the creation of the Etats généraux du cinéma Francais, a committee of film-industry workers who wanted more freedom to make films and less control by the Centre national de la cinématographie . At
11938-635: The risk of being totally or partially cut". Beauregard ignored the warning, and Rivette began shooting in October. The film was controversial before its completion; members of the Catholic Church in France began a letter-writing campaign in opposition, and pressurised Paris police commissioner Maurice Papon and Minister of Information Alain Peyrefitte to take action. Both said they would ban it. Rivette finished The Nun in 1966. Although it
12065-572: The scenarios with de Gregorio and Parolini. In Duelle (Une quarantaine) (1976), the Queen of the Night (Juliet Berto) battles the Queen of the Sun (Bulle Ogier) over a magic diamond which will allow the winner to remain in modern-day Paris. In Noroît (Une vengeance) (1976), the pirate Morag ( Geraldine Chaplin ) seeks revenge against the pirate Giulia ( Bernadette Lafont ) for killing her brother. Duelle
12192-496: The series was abandoned. Rivette later said that he "broke down physically.... I had overestimated my own strength." Although Marguerite Duras offered to finish the film, the actors refused to continue without Rivette. In 2003, he said that Marie et Julien was based on a true story of a woman who committed suicide. Rivette's musical-comedy fourth film would have starred Anna Karina and Jean Marais . Noroît premiered in London and
12319-469: The social and political milieu of 1970s France. Rivette's difficulties in securing financial backing for his films during the late 1970s led him to a business partnership with Pierre Grise Productions and producer Martine Marignac (1946–2022). The company was the chief distributor and financier for all his subsequent films. Their first film, Love on the Ground (1984), again concerned a theatrical group and
12446-534: The summer of 1952, he made his third short film, Le Divertissement . Charles Bitsch called it "a Rohmer-esque Marivaudage between young men and women." Rivette, an assistant to Jacques Becker and Jean Renoir, was a cinematographer on Truffaut's short film Une Visite (1954) and Rohmer's short Bérénice (1954). Eager to make a feature film, he talked about elaborate adaptions of works by André Gide , Raymond Radiguet and Ernst Jünger . With financial support from Chabrol and producer Pierre Braunberger , Rivette made
12573-474: The support they received from their youthful audience. Most of these directors were born in the 1930s and grew up in Paris, relating to how their viewers might be experiencing life. With a high concentration on fashion, urban professional life, and all-night parties, the life of France's youth was exquisitely captured. The French New Wave was popular roughly between 1958 and 1962. The socio-economic forces at play shortly after World War II strongly influenced
12700-412: The technique as style itself. A French New Wave film-maker is first of all an author who shows in its film their own eye on the world. On the other hand, the film as the object of knowledge challenges the usual transitivity on which all the other cinema was based, "undoing its cornerstones: space and time continuity, narrative and grammatical logics, the self-evidence of the represented worlds." In this way
12827-468: The university "just to keep myself occupied". Inspired by Jean Cocteau 's book about the filming of Beauty and the Beast (1946), Rivette decided to pursue filmmaking and began frequenting ciné-clubs . In 1948, he shot his first short film, Aux Quatre Coins , in Rouen's Côte Sainte-Catherine section. The following year, he moved to Paris with friend, Francis Bouchet, because "if you wanted to make films it
12954-429: The use of light and shadow. The result is a set of oddly disjointed scenes without an attempt at unity; or an actor whose character changes from one scene to the next; or sets in which onlookers accidentally make their way onto camera along with extras, who in fact were hired to do just the same. At the heart of New Wave technique is the issue of money and production value. In the context of social and economic troubles of
13081-409: The world announced that they would halt screenings of their films unless Langlois was reinstated. Journalists from Le Monde and Combat expressed support, and on 12 February several hundred members of the film industry protested outside the Cinémathèque. Two days later, a protest by over 3,000 people was met by club-wielding police. Rivette spoke at a press conference and led a charge past one of
13208-485: The young American Morris Engel who showed us the way to independent production with [this] fine movie." The auteur theory holds that the director is the "author" of their movies, with a personal signature visible from film to film. They praised movies by Jean Renoir and Jean Vigo , and made then-radical cases for the artistic distinction and greatness of Hollywood studio directors such as Orson Welles , John Ford , Alfred Hitchcock and Nicholas Ray . The beginning of
13335-450: Was L'amour fou (1969). Frustrated by filmmaking convention, he wanted to create an improvisational atmosphere. Rivette dispensed with a script, shot list and specific direction, experimenting with scenarios and groups of actors. On a limited budget, he shot the film in five weeks. After seeing performances by director Marc'O's experimental - improvisational theatre group, Rivette cast Marc'O actors Jean-Pierre Kalfon and Bulle Ogier as
13462-743: Was secularized following the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State , and is today non-religious and governed by the French Ministry of Education . The school adopted the name of the playwright Pierre Corneille in 1873, and was classified as a national heritage site in December 1985. The Protestant Reformation in the 16th century inspired the Archbishop of Rouen , Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon , to create
13589-485: Was "marked by a schematisation and over-simplicity that is rarely encountered, with absolutely no human depth". The Nun starred Karina as Suzanne Simonin, as a young woman forced into a convent by her family, who is physically and psychologically tortured. She attempts to escape while dealing with her hateful mother, an empathetic mother superior, an indifferent attorney, a lesbian nun and a sympathetic-but-lustful monk. According to Rivette, "The shooting of La Religieuse
13716-407: Was abnormally bold and direct. Godard's stylistic approach can be seen as a desperate struggle against the mainstream cinema of the time, or a degrading attack on the viewer's supposed naivety. Either way, the challenging awareness represented by this movement remains in cinema today. Effects that now seem either trite or commonplace, such as a character stepping out of their role in order to address
13843-605: Was approved twice by the censorship board in March, new Minister of Information Yvon Bourges overrode the approvals in April and banned the film. In response, Beauregard began a public campaign in its defense; many journalists, including Godard and Chabrol, wrote editorials demanding the film's release. A "Manifesto of the 1,789" in support was signed by Jacques Prévert , Raymond Queneau , Marguerite Duras and several major French book publishers, and many Catholic priests and nuns denounced
13970-428: Was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconoclasm . New Wave filmmakers explored new approaches to editing , visual style, and narrative, as well as engagement with the social and political upheavals of the era, often making use of irony or exploring existential themes. The New Wave is often considered one of the most influential movements in
14097-449: Was deeply critical of mainstream French cinema. Rivette's articles, admired by his peers, were considered the magazine's best and most aggressive writings, particularly his 1961 article "On Abjection" and his influential series of interviews with film directors co-written with Truffaut. He continued making short films, including Le Coup de Berger , which is often cited as the first New Wave film. Truffaut later credited Rivette with developing
14224-442: Was difficult ... I was troubled because we had done the piece before as a play with the sentiments, rehearsals, etc, and I realized when I shot the film that since the people were doing the same text, the same words, my mind was wandering and I was no longer listening to the words". Karina described Rivette's direction as hyperactive; he was constantly "darting in and out of all corners ... always looking at this or that detail." After
14351-579: Was eager to make a film with Rossellini's help and met him along with co-writer Gruault to discuss the Cité Universitaire as a "melting pot of cultures and ideas" in Paris. Rossellini suggested that they research the project; shortly afterwards, they received ₣ 100,000 for their script, entitled La Cité , but Rossellini abandoned the project and went to India to make a film of his own. Rivette and Gruault revised their story based on Rossellini's critique, and wrote Paris Belongs to Us . Its title
14478-611: Was eventually dropped "because he was too hard"). After several weeks of rehearsals, the actresses were ready to perform the two plays, which ran at the Théâtre Gérard Philipe in Saint-Denis from 18 April to 20 May 1989. According to Rivette, Corneille's play was more interesting for the actresses; he was "very deep. He's an author I find very dense, so full of history, of thought". Saul Austerlitz called La Bande des quatre 's success "Rivette’s second wind as
14605-541: Was filmed in March and April 1975, and Noroît was shot at Brittany in May. De Gregorio saw Cyril Tourneur 's The Revenger's Tragedy , and suggested it to Rivette. The script, written in 15th-century English, caused some difficulty for the actresses. In August 1975, Rivette began filming part one of the series: Marie et Julien , a love story starring Albert Finney and Leslie Caron . After three days of shooting, Rivette broke down due to nervous exhaustion and production of
14732-596: Was forced to abandon the project. Rivette then made his most critically acclaimed film, Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974). "Aller en bateau" ("go boating") is French slang for "caught up in fiction" or "taken for a ride". Rivette met with friends, actresses Juliet Berto and Dominique Labourier , to develop two characters and created a plot and script with collaborator Eduardo de Gregorio. He later said that during this pre-production period, he "never had as much [fun]. I don’t believe I ever laughed as much". Unlike his previous two films, Rivette did not use improvisation during
14859-494: Was highly critical of established qualité française directors, writing that they were afraid to take risks and were corrupted by money. According to Cahiers writer Fereydoun Hoveyda , early contributors to the magazine were politically right-wing except for Pierre Kast and Rivette. In early 1954, Rivette and Truffaut (nicknamed "Truffette and Rivaut") began a series of interviews with film directors whom they admired. The interviews, influential on film criticism, were recorded on
14986-427: Was more exclusive and included only Truffaut, Chabrol, Rivette, Rohmer, and himself, stating that " Cahiers was the nucleus" of the movement. Godard also acknowledged filmmakers such as Resnais, Astruc, Varda, and Demy as esteemed contemporaries, but said that they represented "their own fund of culture" and were separate from the New Wave. Many of the directors associated with the New Wave continued to make films into
15113-568: Was not accepted by the school. He took courses at the Sorbonne , but began frequenting screenings at Henri Langlois 's Cinémathèque Française with Bouchet instead of attending classes. At the Cinémathèque, Rivette, Claude Chabrol , Jean-Luc Godard , François Truffaut , Suzanne Schiffman , Gruault and Bouchet were immersed in films from the silent and early " talkie " eras that they were previously unfamiliar with. He and this group of young cinephiles became acquainted as they customarily sat in
15240-492: Was not subject to censorship. At Cannes the film was critically praised, and Beauregard later successfully sued the censorship board. French President Charles de Gaulle called the controversy "silly", and ordered newly appointed Minister of Information Georges Gorce to lift the ban. The Nun was finally released on 26 July 1967, with the publicity helping make it Rivette's only hit film to that point. Although it received many good reviews, Guy Daussois of Le Populaire said that it
15367-597: Was opened in 1631, although the foundation stone was laid in 1614 by Marie de Médicis , the widow of King Henri IV of France . The chapel combines both late gothic and classical architectural styles in its 52-meter nave. It became a listed building in 1908. In 1762, the school became known as the Collège Royal after the Jesuits had been expelled from France. After the French Revolution , influenced by
15494-580: Was quickly considered the leader of the group, whom Bazin called the "Hitchcocko-Hawksians." Rivette and his new friends bonded by spending whole days watching repeated screenings of a film and walking home together talking about what they had seen. In 1951, Bazin founded a film magazine, Cahiers du Cinéma , and hired most of the "Hitchcocko–Hawksians"; Rivette began writing for the magazine in February 1953. Rivette championed Hollywood directors such as Howard Hawks and Fritz Lang and international directors such as Roberto Rossellini and Kenji Mizoguchi . He
15621-420: Was released in 1985. Rivette received critical acclaim for his 1988 film La Bande des quatre ( Gang of Four ), about four drama students whose lives playfully alternate from theatre to real life and make-believe. According to the director, who wanted to make a film about young people working on a play, "The work is always much more interesting to show than the result". The film received an honorable mention at
15748-406: Was replaced by Jean-Louis Comolli and Jean Narboni. He contributed articles to the magazine until 1969. Immediately after Rivette left Cahiers , Beauregard was ready to make The Nun (1966) and Rivette and Gruault again revised their script. Rivette called the script a record of the stage play, with a "highly written texture". On 31 August 1965, the censors told Beauregard that the film "run[s]
15875-473: Was screened at the 19th Moscow International Film Festival . Rivette's film policier , Top Secret (1998), featured Bonnaire as a young scientist whose brother ( Grégoire Colin ) convinces her that their father was killed by Walser ( Jerzy Radziwilowicz ) and seeks revenge. Rivette said that the film, loosely based on the Electra myth, was influenced more by Jean Giraudoux 's lesser-known play than on
16002-465: Was shown at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival , but was never distributed. It and Duelle received mediocre reviews, causing problems for Rivette with the series' producers. The director said that Susan Sontag enjoyed Noroît , and Jean Rouch recognised ancient African myths in its plot, where Rivette had included Celtic myths . According to the director, it took over a year to recover from his breakdown. Producer Stéphane Tchalgadjieff had renegotiated
16129-493: Was the only way". On the day of his arrival, he met future collaborator Jean Gruault , who invited him to see Les dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945) at the Ciné-Club du Quartier Latin. Éric Rohmer , whose film criticism Rivette admired, gave a talk at the screening. Although Rivette submitted his film to the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques because it "was the kind of thing that would have pleased my parents", he
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