Céline et Julie vont En Bateau

Céline and Julie Go Boating (French: Céline et Julie vont en bateau) is a 1974 French film directed by Jacques Rivette. Céline and Julie Go Boating is a hypnotic, circular film that is as much about the magic of cinema and narrative as it is about "real" magic. The film starts slowly, and at first seems simply about two very different women getting to know each other and becoming friends. (Whether it is more than that is left up to the viewer.) I... more

Céline and Julie Go Boating (French: Céline et Julie vont en bateau) is a 1974 French film directed by Jacques Rivette. Céline and Julie Go Boating is a hypnotic, circular film that is as much about the magic of cinema and narrative as it is about "real" magic. The film starts slowly, and at first seems simply about two very different women getting to know each other and becoming friends. (Whether it is more than that is left up to the viewer.) In some senses that is the actual "work" the actresses undertake for about half the film; the rest – in the Jamesian 'House of Narrative' – is more about their exploration of narrative, theater, and yes, magic. (Henry James' The Romance of Certain Old Clothes is the accepted story employed, although critic Gilbert Adair says that this internal story is actually "some odd marriage between What Maisie Knew and The Turn of the Screw". ) The film begins with as simple a setup as one might imagine. Shot casually in a documentary style, we see a red... less